Core volunteers (weekly or bi-weekly) are foundational to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Their commitment to service has helped bring thousands of adults and children home since 1983. What keeps them coming back, week after week and year after year? Overwhelmingly, it is a commitment to Habitat’s mission, the camaraderie of fellow volunteers, a sense of purpose, and fulfilling, feel-good work.
With Earth Day just around the corner, it’s an ideal time to reflect on how the Asheville Habitat ReStores fit into not only our mission and community, but our responsibility to minimize our waste. Our ReStores play a crucial role in recirculating saleable goods within our community at affordable prices. Every item purchased at the ReStore—a gently used piece of furniture, a salvaged building material, or a pre-loved appliance—helps fund Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity’s Homeownership and Home Repair programs. This sustainable cycle not only supports families and individuals in need of safe, affordable housing, but also keeps material objects from the landfill while giving them a second chance at life. Read on to learn more about how we minimize our impact on the environment while maximizing our impact on our community.
Waste Diversion:
In 2023, the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores diverted 2,851 tons of waste from the landfill. If you’re wondering what that looks like, that’s the mass of roughly 1,400 passenger cars — or more cars than can fit on the Golden Gate Bridge at once! Through a steady stream of cabinets, appliances, furniture, housewares and, yes, even cars, donors in our community kept a veritable San Francisco traffic jam worth of material flowing through the ReStores last year. Gently loved couches that might have been tossed at the transfer station were instead re-homed to people in need of seating on a budget. Volunteers repaired large appliances that had given up the ghost, breathing new life into sturdy old machines with new parts. And excess glassware donated by local restaurants found itself back in style, rather than back in the bin. Though the sheer volume of usable goods kept out of the ground can be hard to conceptualize, the results are not: in 2023, proceeds from the sales of these items helped 16 qualified homebuyers purchase a home in partnership with Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, and 56 homes in our community saw crucial repairs affordably completed with the help of our Home Repair team.
Fabric Recycling:
Back in early 2020, the ReStores found themselves in a (mostly positive) pickle: local animal rescue shelters that had been taking accumulated unsaleable fabrics and textiles from the stores could no longer accept them. The shelters, which had been using the fabrics for bedding and cleaning material, were so well supported that they no longer had any need for them. To continue keeping the unsaleable textiles out of the trash, Asheville Habitat connected with Green Zone Recycling. Green Zone, based out of Durham, NC, is the largest textile recycler in the southeast U.S. market, and they have been picking up fabric by the (increasingly large) bag from the Asheville ReStore every week since February of 2020. To date, the ReStores have recycled over 43,815 pounds of fabric through Green Zone, with 14,670 pounds recycled in 2023 alone!
Deconstruction:
The ReStores don’t just accept donations of cabinets: sometimes we go and pull them ourselves. In 2023, the ReStore’s Deconstruction team completed 82 jobs, extracting reusable building materials prior to remodels or renovations performed by local homeowners, contractors, or businesses. According to a 2018 study conducted by the EPA, “the construction industry contributed more than 600 million tons of waste to landfills, and of that 600 million, 90% was contributed from demolitions.” Our Deconstruction program not only diverts usable material from the landfill, but it also provides an important source of funding for Asheville Habitat by reselling extracted items into the community through the ReStores. Learn more about our Deconstruction program and its economic and environmental benefits in this article by Deconstruction Supervisor Colin Bristow.
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC04972-scaled.jpg14402560Danny Mendlhttps://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAHH-logo_black_with-counties-tag-300x150.jpgDanny Mendl2024-04-20 18:16:402024-04-20 18:19:35Celebrating Earth Day with the Asheville Habitat ReStores
When former Executive Director Lew Kraus opened the (then called) “Habitat for Humanity Home Store” on Biltmore Avenue in 1990, the endeavor could almost be described as experimental. Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity became one of the first Habitat affiliates in the nation to help fund its housing programs by reselling donated goods. Residents of Asheville could donate gently used furniture and items that they no longer needed while shopping for things they did need at below retail prices, with proceeds from the process supporting the construction of affordable housing in their community. The experiment proved to be a hit, and after moving to its current location at 31 Meadow Road in 2001, the Asheville ReStore continued to grow into its status today as one of the top performing ReStores out of nearly 900 nationwide.
As Asheville Habitat’s flagship ReStore grew, so too did the volume of donated merchandise passing through the store. ReStore trucks picked up donations in the community at no charge, bringing new batches of secondhand goods into the store each day, while Habitat’s Deconstruction program filled the retail floor with in-demand building materials extracted from homes and commercial real estate prior to remodeling. When the time came for Asheville Habitat to open a second ReStore location, it was less experimental than inevitable.
In August of 2019, 29 years after the doors of the Asheville ReStore first opened, the Weaverville ReStore welcomed its first customers. Located in the Weaverville Crossings shopping plaza at 61 Weaver Blvd. where a hardware store once stood, the second, slightly smaller store was a natural fit for the Weaverville community and northern Buncombe County as a whole. Today, the Weaverville ReStore is an important source of funding for Asheville Habitat’s building programs; though Weaverville’s population is only 4% of Asheville’s, the Weaverville ReStore does roughly 33% of the total business of its Asheville counterpart.
The opening of the Weaverville ReStore in August of 2019.
The Weaverville ReStore accepts, processes, and resells much of the same merchandise as the Asheville ReStore: furniture, housewares, appliances, building supplies, art, and more. Despite its smaller size, the Weaverville store even matches the Asheville store with a secondhand bookstore of its own, complete with a selection of digital and analog media like DVDs, CDs, tapes, and records.
This summer will mark the fifth anniversary of the Weaverville ReStore, celebrating half a decade of diverting saleable goods from the landfill and affordably recirculating them throughout Buncombe County to support Asheville Habitat’s Homeownership and Home Repair programs. Looking forward to the next half decade to come, we sat down with Weaverville ReStore Manager Kim Klaas to reflect on what makes the Weaverville store unique:
Q:What’s the biggest difference between the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores?
A: *Laughs* “The size! Definitely the size of the space. The whole Weaverville store could fit in the Asheville ReStore’s upper showroom. But that’s okay, we just have to get a little bit creative to fit all of the generous donations from the community into our store.”
Inside the Weaverville ReStore
Q:Are there benefits to running a smaller store?
A: “Maybe the relationships. We get a lot of traffic from Asheville and the surrounding towns, of course, but Weaverville is a small town. The people who donate and shop here know about us, and they know about Asheville Habitat’s work. Maybe they know someone who purchased a Habitat home, have a friend who volunteers, or have a relative whose home had work done by our Home Repair team. They believe in the work that we do. The deals don’t hurt either!”
Q:What do you think are the best deals at the Weaverville ReStore?
A: “Is ‘everything’ an acceptable answer? If I have to choose, I think the bookstore is a hidden gem. Where else are you going to find a selection of books like this, including some new or recent prints, for only $1-$2 each?”
A look inside the Weaverville ReStore’s bookstore.
Q:Why would someone come to the Weaverville ReStore instead of the Asheville ReStore?
A: “Wrong question. You should visit both stores; we’re only 15 minutes apart! We carry mostly the same things as Asheville: building supplies, furniture, housewares, electronics, art, etc. We even have entire cabinet sets, sometimes multiple! But because our stores are donation-based, you’re going to find different items in each. Your search for the right couch isn’t complete until you’ve checked both.”
Q:You don’t think there’s anything that’s more likely to be found at the Weaverville ReStore?
A: “Alright, well, if we can keep a secret… I think there’s an older demographic here in town, and when they commit to spring cleaning, they donate some really cool vintage items that never last long. You’ll have to stop in to see.”
1995 Eros Chair by Philippe Starck for Kartell. Retail: $800. ReStore: $195
1960’s Achille Castiglioni Mid-Century pendant light. Retail: $2,400. ReStore: $395
Q:What would you say to someone who hasn’t shopped at the Weaverville ReStore before?
A: “Don’t be shy, come visit us! And don’t be afraid to ask questions. The fun of the ReStore, and Habitat, is in its community. You never know, the person ringing you up at the register might be a friend of a friend, or possibly a future Habitat Homeowner contributing their Sweat Equity hours.”
March is a fun and exciting time at Asheville Area Habitat as we provide an alternative spring break opportunity – Collegiate Challenge. Every year student from around the country comes to the Blue Ridge Mountains and spend a week volunteering with us.
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/collegiate-challenge-blog-image.png33338333Ariane Kjellquisthttps://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAHH-logo_black_with-counties-tag-300x150.jpgAriane Kjellquist2024-03-22 09:47:452024-03-26 10:40:49Choosing the Mountains Over the Beach
From thrift to consignment and antique to vintage, the Asheville area is full of places selling second-hand items. See what makes the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity ReStores unique.
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ReStore-unique_blog-image.png33338333Ariane Kjellquisthttps://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAHH-logo_black_with-counties-tag-300x150.jpgAriane Kjellquist2024-02-23 14:34:032024-02-23 14:36:53ReStore: Not Your Average Thrift Shop
Habitat is non-partisan: we bring people together. We unite people of various religions, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, and political beliefs around the common goal of building a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Housing is an issue we can all get behind.
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/HOTH-blog-image.png33338333Ariane Kjellquisthttps://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAHH-logo_black_with-counties-tag-300x150.jpgAriane Kjellquist2024-02-22 14:23:162024-02-26 08:15:38Housing: an issue we can all get behind
Shoppers at the Asheville Habitat ReStores can support more than Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and affordable housing. Through the Register Round Up program, folks have the opportunity to contribute to the work of a wide range of non-profit organizations meeting myriad community needs. In 2023, thanks to the generosity of shoppers who chose to “round up” at the registers, $24,591 was raised and donated to 11 local non-profits and a Habitat for Humanity disaster response effort. 2023 beneficiaries were:
Neighbors in Need
MLK Jr. Association of Asheville & Buncombe County
Bounty and Soul
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness
Helpmate
Homeward Bound
The Mediation Center
Habitat for Humanity Maui (Wildfires relief efforts)
Asheville Poverty Initiative
ABCCM Veterans Restoration Quarters
The Steady Collective
“It was a big year and your contribution through the Round Up made a huge difference,” shared Aiyanna Foltz, Donor Relations Manager at Bounty and Soul. “We are so thankful to the ReStore and Habitat for Humanity for nourishing so many through the Register Round Up program!”
Kim Klass, Manager of the Weaverville Habitat ReStore and Chair of the ReStore’s Societal Impact Committee noted, “The ReStore provides a conduit; we are pleased to facilitate a connection to non-profits in the area doing good work. It’s the generosity of our shoppers that make this program so impactful. All the small incremental donations – 10, 30, 65 cents – add up to big change.”
In the program’s inaugural year, 2019, $11,717 was raised. Since then, thousands of small sub-$1 donations have cumulatively raised more than $105,000 for community partners.
To see the breadth of the Round Up program’s 2023 impact across the community, click here.
Having an above-expectations experience, Jessie is quick to recommend AmeriCorps service as an excellent opportunity to explore career paths, learn and grow, or travel and live somewhere new.
https://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Jessie-Israel_blog-image-1.png33338333Ariane Kjellquisthttps://www.ashevillehabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AAHH-logo_black_with-counties-tag-300x150.jpgAriane Kjellquist2023-12-29 10:20:542023-12-29 10:49:53Here and Now
On Friday December 8th at 3pm, our Glenn Bridge neighborhood in Arden will be bustling with more activity than usual. Following a short speaking program, Warren Haynes will join volunteers, supporters, and future homeowner Paul Mack to raise the first wall of his new home, the 2023 Christmas Jam House, made possible with proceeds from the annual benefit concert. Sierra Nevada is the Adopt-a-Lot sponsor.
To date, Warren Haynes Presents: Christmas Jam has raised more than $2.8 million for Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, constructing 50+ Habitat homes and helping to pay infrastructure and development costs of entire Habitat neighborhoods. Fellow non-profit BeLoved Asheville is also a beneficiary.
Future homeowner and U.S. Veteran Paul Mack moved to Asheville in 2012 for a fresh start. He has been on a journey for housing and financial stability for over a decade. With the help and support of organizations throughout the community, he has diligently worked to improving his credit and pay down debt. Now through Asheville Habitat, he will purchase a 1 BR/ 1 BA one-level townhome. Paul’s dream of a warm home, his own porch, and yard to drive up to is coming true.
Volunteers from near and far will help build Paul’s home and serve in the Asheville ReStore as part of Asheville Habitat’s signature volunteer experience, Before the Jam, Lend a Hand. Local restaurants Gemelli, Luella’s BBQ, and Mellow Mushroom are feeding the helpers. Sierra Nevada and Devil’s Foot are providing non-alcohol beverages, and Merrell and Recover Brands are providing t-shirts and more.
Asheville Habitat’s Executive Director Andy Barnett noted, “Stable housing improves health, educational outcomes, financial stability, and strengthens social connections. By supporting affordable housing, The Christmas Jam helps folks like Paul thrive, instead of survive,” shared Andy Barnett, Chief Executive Officer of Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. “For over 30 years, the W&S Foundation has raised funds, mobilized volunteers, and brought awareness to Habitat’s work in an unprecedented way. The Christmas Jam is one of the bedrock partnerships that we celebrate as part of 40 years of building homes, communities and hope.”
Interested in helping the cause that Warren Haynes and The Christmas Jam support?
There are a few volunteer slots available on Thursday, December 8th. Sign up here.
Stop by the Habitat tables at The Christmas Jam to say hello, learn about programs, donate $1 to sign a stud wall which will be used in the construction of a Habitat house, and enter a raffle to win a VIP package for the 2024 Christmas Jam!
Unable to attend the concert in person? Stream it on com.
Drink Christmas Jam Ale by Sierra Nevada and Devil’s Foot Unity sparking soda in support of the cause.
Make a secure online donation to Asheville Habitat. Select Xmas Jam House as the Purpose.
Check out xmasjam.com for additional ways to support Asheville Habitat and BeLoved including Jam by Day events, vinyl/DV/CD album sales, and more.
Celebrating our volunteers!
VolunteerCore volunteers (weekly or bi-weekly) are foundational to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Their commitment to service has helped bring thousands of adults and children home since 1983. What keeps them coming back, week after week and year after year? Overwhelmingly, it is a commitment to Habitat’s mission, the camaraderie of fellow volunteers, a sense of purpose, and fulfilling, feel-good work.
Celebrating Earth Day with the Asheville Habitat ReStores
Deconstruction, Environmental, ReStoreWith Earth Day just around the corner, it’s an ideal time to reflect on how the Asheville Habitat ReStores fit into not only our mission and community, but our responsibility to minimize our waste. Our ReStores play a crucial role in recirculating saleable goods within our community at affordable prices. Every item purchased at the ReStore—a gently used piece of furniture, a salvaged building material, or a pre-loved appliance—helps fund Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity’s Homeownership and Home Repair programs. This sustainable cycle not only supports families and individuals in need of safe, affordable housing, but also keeps material objects from the landfill while giving them a second chance at life. Read on to learn more about how we minimize our impact on the environment while maximizing our impact on our community.
Waste Diversion:
In 2023, the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores diverted 2,851 tons of waste from the landfill. If you’re wondering what that looks like, that’s the mass of roughly 1,400 passenger cars — or more cars than can fit on the Golden Gate Bridge at once! Through a steady stream of cabinets, appliances, furniture, housewares and, yes, even cars, donors in our community kept a veritable San Francisco traffic jam worth of material flowing through the ReStores last year. Gently loved couches that might have been tossed at the transfer station were instead re-homed to people in need of seating on a budget. Volunteers repaired large appliances that had given up the ghost, breathing new life into sturdy old machines with new parts. And excess glassware donated by local restaurants found itself back in style, rather than back in the bin. Though the sheer volume of usable goods kept out of the ground can be hard to conceptualize, the results are not: in 2023, proceeds from the sales of these items helped 16 qualified homebuyers purchase a home in partnership with Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, and 56 homes in our community saw crucial repairs affordably completed with the help of our Home Repair team.
Fabric Recycling:
Deconstruction:
Spotlight: Jonah Farris, Construction Volunteer
Construction Services, VolunteerSpotlight: Weaverville ReStore
ReStoreThe original “Habitat Home Store” in 1990.
By Danny Mendl
When former Executive Director Lew Kraus opened the (then called) “Habitat for Humanity Home Store” on Biltmore Avenue in 1990, the endeavor could almost be described as experimental. Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity became one of the first Habitat affiliates in the nation to help fund its housing programs by reselling donated goods. Residents of Asheville could donate gently used furniture and items that they no longer needed while shopping for things they did need at below retail prices, with proceeds from the process supporting the construction of affordable housing in their community. The experiment proved to be a hit, and after moving to its current location at 31 Meadow Road in 2001, the Asheville ReStore continued to grow into its status today as one of the top performing ReStores out of nearly 900 nationwide.
As Asheville Habitat’s flagship ReStore grew, so too did the volume of donated merchandise passing through the store. ReStore trucks picked up donations in the community at no charge, bringing new batches of secondhand goods into the store each day, while Habitat’s Deconstruction program filled the retail floor with in-demand building materials extracted from homes and commercial real estate prior to remodeling. When the time came for Asheville Habitat to open a second ReStore location, it was less experimental than inevitable.
In August of 2019, 29 years after the doors of the Asheville ReStore first opened, the Weaverville ReStore welcomed its first customers. Located in the Weaverville Crossings shopping plaza at 61 Weaver Blvd. where a hardware store once stood, the second, slightly smaller store was a natural fit for the Weaverville community and northern Buncombe County as a whole. Today, the Weaverville ReStore is an important source of funding for Asheville Habitat’s building programs; though Weaverville’s population is only 4% of Asheville’s, the Weaverville ReStore does roughly 33% of the total business of its Asheville counterpart.
The opening of the Weaverville ReStore in August of 2019.
The Weaverville ReStore accepts, processes, and resells much of the same merchandise as the Asheville ReStore: furniture, housewares, appliances, building supplies, art, and more. Despite its smaller size, the Weaverville store even matches the Asheville store with a secondhand bookstore of its own, complete with a selection of digital and analog media like DVDs, CDs, tapes, and records.
This summer will mark the fifth anniversary of the Weaverville ReStore, celebrating half a decade of diverting saleable goods from the landfill and affordably recirculating them throughout Buncombe County to support Asheville Habitat’s Homeownership and Home Repair programs. Looking forward to the next half decade to come, we sat down with Weaverville ReStore Manager Kim Klaas to reflect on what makes the Weaverville store unique:
Q: What’s the biggest difference between the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores?
A: *Laughs* “The size! Definitely the size of the space. The whole Weaverville store could fit in the Asheville ReStore’s upper showroom. But that’s okay, we just have to get a little bit creative to fit all of the generous donations from the community into our store.”
Inside the Weaverville ReStore
Q: Are there benefits to running a smaller store?
A: “Maybe the relationships. We get a lot of traffic from Asheville and the surrounding towns, of course, but Weaverville is a small town. The people who donate and shop here know about us, and they know about Asheville Habitat’s work. Maybe they know someone who purchased a Habitat home, have a friend who volunteers, or have a relative whose home had work done by our Home Repair team. They believe in the work that we do. The deals don’t hurt either!”
Q: What do you think are the best deals at the Weaverville ReStore?
A: “Is ‘everything’ an acceptable answer? If I have to choose, I think the bookstore is a hidden gem. Where else are you going to find a selection of books like this, including some new or recent prints, for only $1-$2 each?”
A look inside the Weaverville ReStore’s bookstore.
Q: Why would someone come to the Weaverville ReStore instead of the Asheville ReStore?
A: “Wrong question. You should visit both stores; we’re only 15 minutes apart! We carry mostly the same things as Asheville: building supplies, furniture, housewares, electronics, art, etc. We even have entire cabinet sets, sometimes multiple! But because our stores are donation-based, you’re going to find different items in each. Your search for the right couch isn’t complete until you’ve checked both.”
Q: You don’t think there’s anything that’s more likely to be found at the Weaverville ReStore?
A: “Alright, well, if we can keep a secret… I think there’s an older demographic here in town, and when they commit to spring cleaning, they donate some really cool vintage items that never last long. You’ll have to stop in to see.”
Q: What would you say to someone who hasn’t shopped at the Weaverville ReStore before?
A: “Don’t be shy, come visit us! And don’t be afraid to ask questions. The fun of the ReStore, and Habitat, is in its community. You never know, the person ringing you up at the register might be a friend of a friend, or possibly a future Habitat Homeowner contributing their Sweat Equity hours.”
Choosing the Mountains Over the Beach
Affordable Housing, Construction Services, VolunteerMarch is a fun and exciting time at Asheville Area Habitat as we provide an alternative spring break opportunity – Collegiate Challenge. Every year student from around the country comes to the Blue Ridge Mountains and spend a week volunteering with us.
ReStore: Not Your Average Thrift Shop
ReStoreFrom thrift to consignment and antique to vintage, the Asheville area is full of places selling second-hand items. See what makes the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity ReStores unique.
Housing: an issue we can all get behind
Advocacy, Affordable HousingHabitat is non-partisan: we bring people together. We unite people of various religions, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, and political beliefs around the common goal of building a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Housing is an issue we can all get behind.
Habitat ReStore Round Up: Small Change, Big Impact
Collaboration, Register Round Up, ReStoreShoppers at the Asheville Habitat ReStores can support more than Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and affordable housing. Through the Register Round Up program, folks have the opportunity to contribute to the work of a wide range of non-profit organizations meeting myriad community needs. In 2023, thanks to the generosity of shoppers who chose to “round up” at the registers, $24,591 was raised and donated to 11 local non-profits and a Habitat for Humanity disaster response effort. 2023 beneficiaries were:
“It was a big year and your contribution through the Round Up made a huge difference,” shared Aiyanna Foltz, Donor Relations Manager at Bounty and Soul. “We are so thankful to the ReStore and Habitat for Humanity for nourishing so many through the Register Round Up program!”
Kim Klass, Manager of the Weaverville Habitat ReStore and Chair of the ReStore’s Societal Impact Committee noted, “The ReStore provides a conduit; we are pleased to facilitate a connection to non-profits in the area doing good work. It’s the generosity of our shoppers that make this program so impactful. All the small incremental donations – 10, 30, 65 cents – add up to big change.”
In the program’s inaugural year, 2019, $11,717 was raised. Since then, thousands of small sub-$1 donations have cumulatively raised more than $105,000 for community partners.
To see the breadth of the Round Up program’s 2023 impact across the community, click here.
Here and Now
Affordable Housing, Construction Services, service, VolunteerHaving an above-expectations experience, Jessie is quick to recommend AmeriCorps service as an excellent opportunity to explore career paths, learn and grow, or travel and live somewhere new.
Music builds homes
Collaboration, Events, fundraiser, VolunteerOn Friday December 8th at 3pm, our Glenn Bridge neighborhood in Arden will be bustling with more activity than usual. Following a short speaking program, Warren Haynes will join volunteers, supporters, and future homeowner Paul Mack to raise the first wall of his new home, the 2023 Christmas Jam House, made possible with proceeds from the annual benefit concert. Sierra Nevada is the Adopt-a-Lot sponsor.
To date, Warren Haynes Presents: Christmas Jam has raised more than $2.8 million for Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, constructing 50+ Habitat homes and helping to pay infrastructure and development costs of entire Habitat neighborhoods. Fellow non-profit BeLoved Asheville is also a beneficiary.
Future homeowner and U.S. Veteran Paul Mack moved to Asheville in 2012 for a fresh start. He has been on a journey for housing and financial stability for over a decade. With the help and support of organizations throughout the community, he has diligently worked to improving his credit and pay down debt. Now through Asheville Habitat, he will purchase a 1 BR/ 1 BA one-level townhome. Paul’s dream of a warm home, his own porch, and yard to drive up to is coming true.
Volunteers from near and far will help build Paul’s home and serve in the Asheville ReStore as part of Asheville Habitat’s signature volunteer experience, Before the Jam, Lend a Hand. Local restaurants Gemelli, Luella’s BBQ, and Mellow Mushroom are feeding the helpers. Sierra Nevada and Devil’s Foot are providing non-alcohol beverages, and Merrell and Recover Brands are providing t-shirts and more.
Asheville Habitat’s Executive Director Andy Barnett noted, “Stable housing improves health, educational outcomes, financial stability, and strengthens social connections. By supporting affordable housing, The Christmas Jam helps folks like Paul thrive, instead of survive,” shared Andy Barnett, Chief Executive Officer of Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. “For over 30 years, the W&S Foundation has raised funds, mobilized volunteers, and brought awareness to Habitat’s work in an unprecedented way. The Christmas Jam is one of the bedrock partnerships that we celebrate as part of 40 years of building homes, communities and hope.”
Interested in helping the cause that Warren Haynes and The Christmas Jam support?