Faithful Volunteer Receives Honor

Habitat Fresno is honored to report that our faithful volunteer, Jim Avellar, has been awarded the Outstanding Adult Volunteer of the Year by HandsOn Central California. Jim and the other winners were honored at a reception at City Hall on April 22nd and at the annual Hands Across the Valley awards luncheon on April 24th.  Jim was nominated by Habitat’s Volunteer Coordinator, Joan Cook, who has worked with Jim since the first day he stepped foot on a Habitat job site. 

Jim is currently volunteering on his 36th Habitat home, and in 2012 he logged in more than 300 hours as a construction team leader.  Jim, who works for Schneider Electric, has been an ambassador for the mission of Habitat for Humanity and is responsible for securing many financial grants as well as construction volunteers from his employer for Habitat. “I am very fortunate to work for a company that supports a charity that I love. Habitat for Humanity is a great organization because it helps others obtain homes that they are not able to obtain themselves,” he said.

Congratulations, Jim, and thank you for all you do!  

ReStore Receives Two Amazing Donations!

Sometimes a mistake turns into a blessing!  Brian Hobbs Roofing received an order of concrete roofing tiles for a custom home that were not the right color, and unfortunately the manufacturer would not take the tiles back. When trying to figure out what to do with the unused tiles, Tina Hobbs remembered seeing the ReStore commercials on TV and decided that ReStore would be the perfect place to donate these brand new tiles. 

The 17 pallets of roofing tiles came complete with all the accessories necessary to build one large home or possibly two smaller ones, and are valued at approximately $15,000.

“We were blessed to be able to do this,” said Tina.  And we are blessed by such an amazing gift!

The second generous donation in April came from Hub Construction Supplies and Equipment, a company which has 15 branches from Sacramento to San Diego. Their southern California branches have been donating to ReStore, and one of their managers in the Los Angeles area asked Ryan Pender, the Hub Fresno branch manager, if there were also a ReStore in Fresno. They had several pallets of hardware that they wanted to donate in this area.

Oddly enough, Ryan had just received a ReStore brochure a few days before and was happy to accommodate the request.  Ten pallets of various construction hardware arrived including staples, staple guns, tools and tool repair parts with an original retail value of over $70,000.  According to Torin Blount, ReStore Manager, there were 15 pages of inventory!  They certainly live up to their motto:  Hub Has It!

Ryan said, “We were grateful to be able to do this and to help out especially in today’s economy.”  Thank you, Hub Fresno, for your amazing donation!

Equestrians Work Hard

On April 5, Lanie Madrazo, Volunteer Coordinator for the Fresno State Equestrian Team, and twenty of her enthusiastic teammates volunteered their services at ReStore to clean and straighten up the shelves and interact with customers.

Lanie found out about ReStore when she attended a conference in Colorado last fall and her team volunteered at a ReStore there.  When she discovered there was one in Fresno she thought it would be a great place for her large group of women to volunteer. She also supported the mission of ReStore.

The equestrian team does a different community service project each month throughout the school year. “Working with the staff was a lot of fun, and they were so appreciative of the time we put in.,” Lanie said.  “ReStore was such a wonderful place to volunteer because there were so many different things for the girls to do….and the girls had a lot of fun.”