Coming Home: Habitat, Christ Episcopal host groundbreaking

Malia Thomas, The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
·2 min read

Sep. 27—VALDOSTA — Christ Episcopal Church is breaking new ground, literally and figuratively.

Christ Episcopal is sponsoring a Habitat for Humanity house and is inducting the David Clark "Build for the Cure" Blitz Build 2022 as a new annual Valdosta-Lowndes Habitat for Humanity build to honor the memory of late church member Dave Clark, who passed away in April.

"To honor Dave Clark and his commitment to helping local families in need of decent, affordable homes, we propose to conduct an annual Blitz Build in his honor. ... (Our) goal is for the family to have their first Thanksgiving meal in their new home!," Habitat representatives said in a statement.

The Blitz Build concept is to build a house in two weeks or less. Clark organized and managed Valdosta's first official Blitz Build in 1994 on Harmony Way. He also had a hand in the Jimmy Carter Work Project Blitz Build in June 2003, with the former president and 1,000 volunteers building 27 homes in five days near Northside Drive.

Clark also organized and project-managed a 24-hour Blitz house in honor of his son, Michael Clark, who had passed away from cystic fibrosis.

Latanya Bush is the first recipient of a Blitz under Clark's name. She is a young mother who lives with her special-needs child, Jayden.

She said she's only able to work part-time due to the demands of caring for her son, who is dependent on a wheelchair and on his mom and nurse for all of his care. More space was needed for his disability supplies and equipment. Bush said their current home had water and electrical issues.

"I completed all my building hours with Habitat. They gave me five lots to choose from. It was between Ann Street and East Brookwood that I liked, so I ended up going with this one," she said.

Mike Bourgoin, executive director for Habitat, praised Christ Episcopal and Habitat volunteers for their compassion and dedication resulting in the organization hitting goals for their builds.

"We managed to do some good things because I have a tremendous staff to help us do things. The last couple of months we've been talking about this has been a whole new awakening. First learning about the long history Christ Episcopal has had with Habitat for one, and the passion that the volunteers, including Latanya, I have met with in regards to putting this project together is incredible," he said.