• President's Message
• Fundraising Committee
• Construction Committee
• Family Selection/Support Committee

• Site Committee
• Volunteer Committee
• Public Relations
• Youth Activities

This past year has been a successful year for our affiliate. Our most obvious accomplishment has been the completion of the Selleck Hill house. This is a handsome house in a handsome setting and all of our volunteers should be justly proud of their contributions. It appears that our partner family is as pleased with the house as we are. A delightful but soggy dedication of this house was held on April 28, 2002.

We were all sorry that health problems made it impossible for our partner family to remain in the Undermountain House in Salisbury. Our affiliate was able to purchase the house back and a new partner family is now enjoying the house. A dedication for this house will be held at a future time.

Great strides have been made on the Lime Rock Station Road property. Some surveying has been done and it is beginning to look as though this project will finally move forward. It would be heartening if construction could actually begin this summer.'

Our fund raising efforts were successful again with good returns from the LOCOS production, the Tag Sale, as well as the wonderful returns from the fund drive. The committee had set a goal of increasing the number of donors as well as increasing Board donations. Both goals were met through the hard work of this committee.

We had two visits this year from our Northeast Affiliate Support Manager, Bruce Rodgers. His fall visit was our Triennial evaluation which resulted in some good commendations as well as a few "Opportunities for Growth." A number of those "opportunities" are now being addressed.

We have been fortunate in having a new volunteer, Phil Havens, join our effort and he is going to maintain our web site which had become terribly outdated. We welcome his help.

Work has progressed steadily on our extensive repair project which has been headed by Tom Key. Tom has personally worked on this project and has made sure that it maintained its momentum.

It has been a pleasure to serve my terms as President. The members of this Board have always been very supportive, helpful, and willing to volunteer when needed. I have also found the other officers to be an asset to our Board. I am looking forward to working with our new President, Lynn Nania.

Rosemary Farnsworth
President

This past year (2002) has proven to be extremely gratifying. We fear that past results will be difficult to match in view of a very challenging economic and international climate. Through the hard work of our energetic committee, we were able to generate $91,000, close to our target of $100,000. Donations from churches, foundations, corporate and individuals, combined with two very success events (Pirates of Penzance and our Annual Tag Sale) have helped propel our results.

Our Tag Sale, along with the rapidly expanding Annual Appeal, hopefully will provide us the foundation for future annual revenue. However, to achieve capacity building, we must tap other revenue sources. One event, with an impressive track record, is our Wine Tasting. We have succeeded in securing an impressive venue and have an equally outstanding committee to maximize the results of this elegant event.

As we recruit new members to this committee, we hope that many new ideas are presented for future fundraising events. Our organization has gained the reputation for notable fundraising endeavors, and with the right personnel, ideas, and execution, we will succeed.

2002 Fundraising Results

• Contributions:
  • Individuals $23,000
  • Rebates       15,000
  • Foundations  3,000
  • Businesses    2,000
  • Churches      1,000
• Total Contributions $44,000
• Tag Sale 25,000
• LOCOS 22,000
• Total     $91,000

New Construction
We completed our fourth house at 30 Selleck Hill, Salisbury in April 2002, approximately one year after seriously getting under way. It was our quickest build to date. The family moved in May 1, and purchased the house in the fall of 2002.

We are investigating construction options for our next house with the goals of simpler construction and cost savings. We expect to break ground for our Falls Village project in late spring-early summer 2003.

Rehab and Repairs
We undertook a major rehab project this year, working with Salisbury Family Services on a project to convert the unfinished ground floor of a barn with an upstairs apartment into living space. This was necessary due to the progressive physical disability of one of the family members. The end result will provide the family not only with a rather nice two-story house, but also with the potential for some rental income (requiring zoning approval) down the road. Several local professionals donated significant time to the project, specifically Elizabeth Slotnick, the architect, Al Ginouves of Holland and Chamberlain et Al, Jim Casey, Jr. the plumber, and Bill McNulty of Superior Painting. We are also fortunate on this project to have the continued support of LITCO Supply in Torrington, as well as Herrington's. The project has been headed by two site supervisors, supported by the construction coordinator and some additional volunteers. In particular, students from The Hotchkiss School were a significant and dependable labor source.

Jennifer Weigel

There was much work for the Committee this year, both in assisting our existing partner families and in selecting a new family for the Undermountain Road property. Sharon Olsen who had ably headed the Committee for many years moved to Wyoming in June. Rev. Barbara Schenk assumed leadership for Family Support while Eileen Fox with other committee members coordinated the Family Selection process.

Construction of the Selleck Hill house moved ahead and in May, Terre and Hal Lefferts and their three boys took up residence under a lease with Habitat. On December 6th, Habitat conveyed ownership of this beautiful home to the Lefferts.

The homeowner of the Undermountain Road experienced medical problems that made it impossible to continue the financial commitments of ownership. The committee was able to assist her in qualifying for Faith House in Salisbury and she moved there in April. After many months spent resolving legal issues with the State of Connecticut, Habitat reacquired ownership of the property in October. In the interim we conducted a marketing campaign and application process and notified the Stevenson family of Salisbury in October that they had been selected. Danielle and her two daughters moved into the house around Thanksgiving. Sweat equity hours were contributed by the family, relatives and friends to freshen the house. More sweat equity work will be done to the exterior of the house in the spring, after which ownership is expected to be transferred to Danielle.

The Committee also worked with attorneys and other Habitat Board members to revise the Memorandum of Agreement between Habitat and partner families relating to appreciating values of the houses sold by Habitat with the aim of preserving affordable housing into the future.

The Committee hopes to finish standardizing documents and application forms explaining the family selection process which will be included on the new Habitat website www.habitatnwct.org.

The challenge for 2002 was to make decisions about the development of our Lime Rock Station Road property and to get our next site ready for building. We were given about 92 acres of land with approximately 12 acres on the river side and the balance on the northern side of the road. It appears that each side of the road contains about 12 acres that are developable.

Although the northern parcel may be more easily developed than the river side which has been mined for sand and gravel, we decided to explore development of the river side, leaving the northern portion available to market. The proceeds of which can be applied towards construction costs on the river side and permit us to purchase building lots in towns not yet served by our organization.

The plan which has emerged calls for using two existing accesses and building two Habitat homes served by each driveway. The plan would leave 3 to 4 acres at the highest point of this parcel to create a fifth, marketable lot.

We obtained a grant from The Torrington Area Fund for Public Giving to pay for a survey provided by Lamb Kiefer and a grant from Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to offset development costs. Ralph Stanton and Charlie Harson have been engaged to conduct perk tests.

As only one of the proposed houses will be visible from the road, our impact on this scenic area will be minimized. The existing areas that were previously excavated by past mining may serve as ideal foundations and also reduce our visual impact.

It is our hope to have the subdivision application ready for submission in the spring of 2003.

George Massey

This year saw the completion and dedication of the Selleck Hill house. This house, completed in less than a year, involved more volunteers and community groups than any of our other projects. It was exciting to see so many volunteers at the dedication.

A rehab project in Lakeville has not involved as many volunteers but those on the site are certainly dedicated. The Habitat group from The Hotchkiss School continues to be work on our projects.

Fund rising events involved many new volunteers. Once again our successful tag sale brought in many new workers. We had over thirty people working on this event and many have signed up to work on other projects.

The end of the year finds us trying to rebuild our volunteer lists so we are ready to go as soon as we get the green flag on our Lime Rock Station property.

Kathy Mera
Volunteer Coordinator

This committee has initiated notices to newspapers, radio stations, and public TV channels regarding all fundraising events and functions. Also, we forwarded press releases and feature articles to the Lakeville Journal, Litchfield County Times and other media.

We coordinated publicity for the dedication of the home for the Lefferts' family.

Three events occurred during the year which will impact our public image. Firstly, Phil Havens, a computer professional, has volunteered to update our existing web site. Also, Vali Valente, a graduate cinematography student, has produced a documentary of our program. It is hoped that this video will be aired on community TV and incorporated on our web site. Finally, this summer we participated in "Celebrate Sharon", a community event which highlighted volunteer activities.

As we start the New Year, a group has been established and is currently in the process of updating our brochure.

Lyn Hart

Youth Activities Report

Habitat for Humanity NW CT began trying to involve kids at the high school level in the Spring of 2002. Currently, Housatonic Valley Regional High School is the only school involved, but HVRHS covers six towns (and six elementary schools), five of which are part of our affiliate area.

We meet with the students during the school hours of their activity blocks which occur almost every Monday morning. The first semester we had 17 children involved, but this last semester we have about 40 children ready and eager to help Habitat for Humanity. Even more have signed up for the Spring 2003 school semester. In addition to discussion and updates of our work locally, we also look at work that is being done all over the world.

We are currently arranging a major recycling project at the school to not only benefit the mounds of waste there, but to also be used as a fund raiser for our affiliate. The students are really excited about this and have already plastered the walls with posters, hoping to spread the word.

We are also planning to get involved with the new Habitat for Humanity International Youth United, a program that is aimed at getting youths from the ages of 5 - 25 involved in sponsoring and building homes in their communities. We hope to spread this program to all, or at least some, of the grammar schools feeding into HVRHS, helping them to understand Habitat's mission and encouraging them to participate in our local work. Kids from different ages, backgrounds, and organizations will work together and from this group we hope to develop leadership skills and to create youth leaders. If all goes as planned, in just a matter of a few years, we should have a very large and capable group of young citizens totally dedicated to Habitat for Humanity.