Last month, I had the opportunity to addend the biannual Habitat for Humanity Affiliate Conference in Atlanta, Georgia with over 800 affiliates. It was wonderful after two years of isolation, to come together and be inspired and recharged. During the conference, I attended a presentation by Adam Markel, international speaker and best-selling author. Mr. Markel has written abundantly on the topic of resilience. During his presentation he reminded us that resilience is about restoring or recharging ourselves; it not just about grit endurance. It was a good reminder of the importance to recharge ourselves to be able to continue with our mission of affordable housing, and making our community a better place to live.

One of the wonderful things about Habitat for Humanity is its hopefulness. Being hopeful is not always easy, especially these last couple of years. We need to have the capacity to hold hope in our hearts and continue with our work. As I look ahead this year to our 35^th build and our first Women Build event, I am hopeful and excited. I am also hopeful you will take time to recharge as we move into longer days filled with sunshine and warmth. 

April 17-23 was National Volunteer Appreciation Week. To show our appreciation to each of our 188 volunteers in 2021 and the tremendous impact they have on our organization, we held a BBQ at the ReStore on Saturday, April 23. It was so wonderful to see and chat with each of you that took the time to stop by and grab a burger. We will continue to host more appreciation events; be watching for more information in the coming months.

THANK YOU L-C Valley for your generous support of our 2nd Annual Home is the Key campaign!

Because of your charitable donations at our local sponsors, we were able to raise $3,400 in just 30 days!

Those of you who have volunteered with us in the past are familiar with our previous volunteer management platform, Volunteer Hub.

We have chosen to switch to a new platform that will allow for a more straightforward user interface with mobile capabilities.

Anyone on our previous platform should have gotten an email inviting you to join us on Civic Champs. Please create a new volunteer profile and download the app. You will answer the same basic onboarding questions you answered with Volunteer Hub.

This is a new platform for us as well as you. Please be patient with us as we navigate the new system. We might encounter some bumps in the road. If you do, just let us know and we'll do our best to figure it out. We have no doubt in the end, this switch will be great for all of us!

If you are interested in creating a profile and didn't get the invitation email, click here.

On Friday, May 6th we participated in the TCUW Day of Caring at both our affiliate office and ReStore. We were blessed to have teams from Clearwater Paper, Avista, and Keller Williams Real Estate spend the morning volunteering with us.

We completed a playhouse build that will be donated to a local early childhood center and numerous improvements were made in the ReStore. Days like this have a tremendous impact on our organization! This is why we always say that volunteers are the heart and soul of what we do. Thank you from the bottom of OUR hearts.

Things are changing at the Lewiston ReStore! We are rearranging the store to make room for more of your favorite items. Stop by and check out our progress, but please forgive our mess. It is a work in progress. Be watching next month's newsletter for before and after photos.

Scott Jordan