On Saturday, 20 July 2013 a ceremony was held to celebrate the handover of two more homes that form part of Habitat for Humanity’s Yea Housing Estate Project (established in response to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria).
The two houses are the fourth and fifth to be constructed over the past 12 months, completing stage 1 of this ambitious project, with plans for another 20 to be built within the next two years.
One of these homes was affectionately referred to as the ‘Arup’ house – due to the combined effort and work undertaken on this particular house by a number of our volunteers across separate working days.
The ‘Arup’ house is now the new home to a young couple – who have six small children between them and who were previously living in a caravan. No doubt the brightly coloured walls of the bedrooms will get a working over from their little hands! The wall colours were chosen by the children and painted with care and diligence by our teams.
An elderly couple are the grateful recipients of the other home.
It was very rewarding to see the smiles and joy on the faces of the new home owners – who were full of praise and gratitude for the efforts and contribution made by all the volunteers and other organisations involved in this project.
A Team Effort
The successful completion and handover of these five homes is a credit to all who have been involved over the past 12 months. In total – we have had 50 staff members help in the construction of these homes, along with 10 family members, partners and friends:
Peter & Anne Bowtell, Frank Gargano , Brendon McNiven , Conor Monaghan , Brendan McNamee, Georgina Reddin (Wallace) & Tom, Alan Morgan, Jon Osborne, Angela Williams & Will, David Perl & Hypatia, Natasha Randall, John & Sandy King, Harriet Priddey, Nick Stone & Leo, Mitchell Findlay, Rachel Ngu, Marinna Duffield & John Keating, Will Gouthrie, James Danatzis, Jillian Hardie, Robin & Nicole King, Lindsey Marsh, Perry Jackson, Iemke Roos, Simon DeLisle, Phil Alexander-Pye, David Ashe, Alex Chen, Clive Domone, Leah Ferrari & Arran Aykens, Ken-Yi Fong, Emma Gardner, Jonathan Griffin, Roger Hill, Dipesh Patel, David Stirling, Lee Welch, John Legge-Wilkinson, James O’Donnell & Lisa, Mark Hughes, Belinda Hewitt, Thomas King, Mitchell Findley, Courtney Neville, David Barker, Dylan Thorpe, Tom Slack, Samantha Webb, James Crocaris, Stephanie Fogarty & Edward Armit,
In addition to 8 summer vacation students who enjoyed a day out at the end of their time with us …
Josh Main, Jimmy Yu, Simon Moza, Madeline Bedelis, Daniel Halie-Michael, Zachary Parsons, Jonathon Anderson, Emma Cotching.
This is a great reflection on the spirit and commitment within Arup to help the wider community.
Thank you to Samantha Webb, Rachel Ngu, Alex Chen and Arup CEP for their support and help with the organisation of these days.
