Grant received

Nothing was out of the ordinary when Alison Pettit logged into her Liberty email the morning of Aug. 3, 2018.

As routine, she scrolled through her messages and scanned for relevant mail. As a professor of information technology in the Liberty School of Business and as a faculty sponsor for the LU Habitat for Humanity club, Pettit checks her email often.

Her gaze met an unread message from Habitat for Humanity International. Curious, she opened it, and the details within pleasantly caught her off guard.

“I was in shock,” Pettit said. “When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it.”

Several months prior, the Liberty Habitat club, along with more than 30 other schools, applied for State Farm grants through Habitat for Humanity International. The email confirmed that the LU Habitat club would receive a $20,000 grant, the highest amount given, to help construct a new house for a family in Lynchburg.

This was the second time Liberty had applied for a grant, so when Pettit first saw the email, she expected a rejection. 

“At first, I thought it was a ‘thank you for your application, but you didn’t get it’ email,” Pettit said. 

Of more than 30 applications, Clemson University, Purdue University and Liberty University were the only recipients of the full $20,000. Other schools received smaller grants.

According to habitat.org, Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve places to call home. The LU Habitat club, consisting of 60 Liberty students, seeks to provide that same vision in the Lynchburg community.

“Everyone needs a foundation of some sort,” Madison Sumner, club president of the LU Habitat club, said. “From the moment you step onto the building site, you know right away that it’s going to be incredible.”

To begin a building project, the club must acquire $60,000 — an amount that takes roughly two years to obtain. 

Along with grants, the club participates in fundraisers and welcomes donations through its Facebook page. 

“($60,000) is a lot to raise,” Pettit said. “And so, having the $20,000 grant was just incredible. That was such a huge blessing.”

The club has completed two houses since its inception. When the club is not working on its own building projects, it participates in other builds around Lynchburg.

According to lynchburgva.gov, the city of Lynchburg currently has a poverty rate of 23.1 percent, one of the highest in central Virginia. Pettit said around 100 Lynchburg families apply for Habitat homes, but only four or five receive Habitat houses annually.

A popular misconception about the nonprofit is that Habitat freely gives away the houses. Recipients still pay for their houses, but at a reduced rate dependent on income. 

“A lot of people think that it’s just a free hand out,” Pettit said. “It’s not like that. These people work hard to purchase their house.”

As an international nonprofit, Habitat for Humanity stretches far beyond Lynchburg. Thousands of homes have been built for low-income families both in the United States and across the globe.

According to former president of the United States Jimmy Carter, who partnered with Habitat for over 35 years, the nonprofit provides low-income families an easier avenue to pursue happier lives.

“Low-income housing is desperately needed, and obviously all the volunteers realize that fact,” Carter said.

According to habitat.org, President Carter and his wife worked with more than 100,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build and enhance more than 4,000 houses.

Carter’s largest project was in the Philippines, where 14,000 volunteers joined together to build almost 300 houses in five days. 

“It’s a very gratifying experience,” Carter said. “You can see that Habitat means a lot for the recipients.”

Carter detailed the lifestyle of one of the Philippine families who received a Habitat home. Prior to receiving a house, the family, a woman and her two daughters, slept in an abandoned septic tank, and they pulled a canvas over the septic tank to deflect heavy
rainfall.

According to Sumner, Habitat is not just a “hand-out charity” that helps families temporarily. It helps change a family’s life forever.

“The kids who move into a Habitat house have a completely different experience because for the first time in their life, they’re not ashamed to bring their schoolmates and their friends to their own home,” Carter said. “They’ve been ashamed of all the places they’ve lived in the past, but they’re proud of their Habitat house.”

The LU Habitat club finished a building project last spring for a single mother and her two children, and it hopes to collect another $60,000 before next May so it can begin building another house.

Sumner, recently selected as the club’s president, hopes the club grows under her leadership and that the club can fundraise enough money to complete a house
every year.

“I also want people to know that (the club) is a place for them to feel welcome, to feel like they have something they can belong to,” Sumner said. 

The club partners with Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity to complete the construction process — an assignment that takes several weeks for the band of 60.

“If you don’t know how to use a hammer, show up anyway, and they’ll show you how to use it,” Sumner said.

After Sumner completed her first building project with the club last spring, she could not believe the impact it had on the recipients.

“There were definitely tears shed,” Sumner said. “There were so many emotions because there was so much joy. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just something you have to be there to see.”

Despite the success last spring, the club does not want to pause its work.

“I never wanted this to be a one-and-done thing,” Pettit said. “I always wanted this to be more.”

One of the most resonating characteristics of Habitat, according to Sumner, is that it goes beyond a typical charity. Habitat for Humanity volunteers seek to build personal relationships with the recipients of a house.

“We went from basement to roof,” Sumner said. “They’re able to take that step up into the rest of their life, and God is putting that step there.”

For more information about the LU Habitat club, or if you want to donate, visit its Facebook page — Liberty University Habitat for Humanity Club.

“(Working with Habitat) is not just a sacrifice, it’s a wonderful experience,” Carter said. “We’re always grateful to Habitat for giving us this opportunity to serve others in a very happy and gratifying way.”