By Kevin Shannahan
The Natchitoches chapter of The Fuller Center for Housing erected the framing for the walls on a soon to be new home Saturday, Saturday, June 22. The home will join four others previously built in our city by the Fuller Center.
The Fuller Center for Housing is a faith based non profit that opened in 2005. They currently operate in 70 communities in the United States as well as 20 countries. Their mission is to partner with individuals in need of housing and assist them in achieving their goals. The homes are built with volunteer labor. The framing for this house was put together by The Church of the Good Shepherd in Palos Heights, IL and shipped to Natchitoches where the NSU Basketball team and Coach Mike McConathy helped unload the materials. The homeowner will put in 300 hours of labor in building alongside the community volunteers. The Fuller Center does everything possible to keep the cost of materials and land down so the greatest number of people may become partners in homebuilding. The homeowner signs an interest free mortgage to repay the costs incurred. The Fuller Center makes no profit from the sale. In fact, the payments are turned around and used to build more homes. The homeowners are actually helping other people achieve their dreams when they make every mortgage payment.
The Fuller Center is an absolutely wonderful organization that is making our community a better place. This will be their fifth home built since they started. They are men and women of every race and background who saw a need and are doing something about it. The title of this article is taken from an inscription on the framing limber written by a volunteer in Illinois. The Church of the Good Shepherd puts together framing for Fuller Houses all over the country. The volunteers write messages of encouragement to people they will never meet.
The men and women of the Fuller Center need our help. While the framing was donated and shipped to Natchitoches free of charge by the church in Illinois, there is so much more that goes into building a house. The Natchitoches Fuller Center is in need of donations of building supplies and money. There are also opportunities to help build for volunteers of every level of physical ability and skill. If you would like to donate, volunteer or otherwise assist the men and women of the Fuller Center for Housing change lives and make our community better, please contact Jim Roberts at 318-554-8225. There is work to be done. Let us get to it!
