Make an end of the year donation today. Together, we can build more homes!

Help us eliminate poverty housing today. Your gift will help make a difference for a family in your community. Please make your tax-deductible gift by December 31, 2012. 

There are hundreds of families looking for a decent place to live in the San Bernardino area. Please give your gift today to help these families find a safe and affordable home that will change their lives and the lives of their children.

Day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year, Habitat for Humanity is working to eliminate poverty housing in our neighborhoods and all over the world. Your support to Habitat for Humanity does much more than help families escape from unsafe, unhealthy living conditions. A Habitat house breaks the cycle of poverty and builds long-term financial security for low-income families who work to help themselves.

Thank you for your consideration. Together we will enrich the lives of many low-income families by making the possibility of homeownership a reality.

Together, we can build more homes! Thank you! 

Gifts That Give Back!

Looking for the perfect gift this Holiday season? Give a ReStore Gift Certificate!

You can't go wrong with a gift certificate! ReStore gift certificates are available in many values, from $5.00 and up! For more information, call the ReStore at 909-799-6738. Or ask a ReStore cashier for more info the next time you are in the store. 

Your gift will help Habitat for Humanity build new homes, improving the quality of life for one family, such as the Miller family of Grand Terrace. Read more about the future Habitat for Humanity families. Click here!

The Steen Family's Home - “It’s Perfect”

By Heidi Lai, Habitat Volunteer

Steen family's home with beautiful Christmas lights!

This Christmas, the Steens got to put up Christmas lights for the first time. Many of us take that for granted, but for the Steens, that means a lot. “It was like a dream come true,” Debbie Steen, who lives with her twelve-year old daughter, said.  “My daughter has been asking years and years and years!” And this was all because of Habitat for Humanity.

When it came to housing, Debbie Steen and her daughter had much misfortune. It all started in 2007, when her house caught on fire. “We lost everything,” Debbie recalls. “We barely had clothes on our backs that morning when our house burned up. I don’t even know if my daughter had shoes on.” After the house fire, Debbie and her daughter moved to a townhouse in San Bernardino. But their experience there was traumatic as well. “I lived in a very bad area,” Debbie remembers. “There were lots of shootings, lots of murders.” Luckily for Debbie and her daughter, though, Habitat for Humanity stepped in.

Debbie received a phone call, when she was told that she had been chosen as one of the Habitat families. Habitat for Humanity—and all the wonderful volunteers, of course—would build her a brand new house that would be all her own. Debbie recalls, “I didn’t believe she had the right person initially. She had to call me back for something else and I thought, ‘Oh no, she’s calling to say she called the wrong family.’ It was unbelievable that I had actually been chosen to be in the Habitat family!”

Debbie had a little while to wait before she would finally be able to live in her own house, but it was all worth it. Working with Habitat for Humanity was both “positive” and “humbling.” And watching people from “all different walks of life” pitch in to build HER house really touched Debbie’s heart. “All the volunteers coming out to help just shows how amazing people are,” Debbie said honestly. “It just shows a lot of goodness.” She marvels, “The volunteers didn’t want anything in return; they just wanted to help!” Finally, the house was completed, and Debbie and her daughter moved into their new house. It’s almost been a year now, and Debbie and her daughter are very content and very grateful to Habitat.

“The new house is beautiful and peaceful and quiet,” Debbie said happily. “No gunshots, no helicopters, no people hanging out in front of your house…it’s perfect. It’s perfect for my daughter and me!”  

Home for the Holidays!

The Home Depot Foundation and Habitat for Humanity Rehabilitate Home for Local Vietnam Veteran

The Home Depot Foundation and Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area will partner on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 to provide a local San Bernardino veteran and his family with home repairs and modifications, just in time for the Holidays!

Daniel Equihua is a disabled Vietnam veteran and is in need of major home repairs to get access inside his home, bathroom, and kitchen. Daniel suffered from a severe stroke, which left him in the Intensive Care Unit for 3 months. While in a coma, doctors did not believe he would survive his ordeal. Currently, Daniel visits the VA Hospital for therapy: 2 days for speech therapy and 3 days for physical therapy.

Daniel and Rose Equihua  

Daniel Equihua served in the Army from 1965-1967 during the Vietnam War. Daniel and his wife, Rose, recently celebrated their 39^th wedding anniversary on November 10. They have 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren, who also live in their home. 

“I am looking forward to getting back to a normal life. The stroke has been very hard on me and my family. We didn’t think I was going to make it, but I am here and fighting!” Daniel stated enthusiastically. “Thank you for making me feel better. We want to be together in our home and it will be nice to decorate for Christmas with my grandchildren!”

More than 20 Home Depot employees will work alongside Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate the home. Repairs and modifications will be made in the kitchen, living room, bathroom and the exterior of the home.

"We are excited to partner with The Home Depot Foundation and engage them in our work to help veterans and families in need," said Rhea Stumm, Communications Manager at Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area. “We want to thank The Home Depot Foundation and Home Depot volunteers for their service and dedication to local veterans.”

Not only is The Home Depot contributing countless volunteer hours to this project, but The Home Depot Foundation has also sponsored this project through a generous gift of $17,000. The rehabilitation project is expected to be completed in 1 week.

“On behalf of The Home Depot Foundation, we look forward to working with Daniel Equihua and Habitat for Humanity” said Steven Klein, Team Depot District Captain. “Daniel served and protected our county, and we are honored to help him repair his home in ways he needs to fully recover from the stroke. We can see the fight in him, the perseverance to fully recover.”

A Board Cutting Ceremony (project kick-off event) will take place at 8:30am on Tuesday, December 4, 2012. Construction will commence at 9:00am and will continue through the day until approximately 3:00pm. 

Pictures to come! 

ReStore Workshop

Update - Check out the pictures from the workshop! CLICK HERE! 

Be sure to make it out to our first ever ReStore DIY Workshop on Saturday, November 17 from 2:00pm - 4:00pm! The theme of the workshop will be refurbishing and painting second hand furniture! The event is FREE and it will be instructed by the talented Rebecca Waring-Crane, owner of 2nd Chance Designs. She will show guests how to paint and refurbish an old piece of furniture, and give the piece a new life! Rebecca will be using an item from the ReStore during the workshop.  Hope to see you there!

Don’t dump it! Donate it to the ReStore!

By Heidi Lai, Habitat Volunteer

Do you have old furniture lying around the house? Maybe you have a rug, or a lamp, or a door that’s been left, propped up in the garage? Or perhaps you dived into cleaning out the house over the weekend, and discovered a bucket full of unused hardware and tools. Before throwing anything out, think first of the ReStore. Many families in need in your local community could benefit because of you.

The ReStore works directly with Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for low-income families in the local community. In fact, 100% of the proceeds go directly to helping build houses for families. The ReStore depends on people like you to donate their old home improvement items, which will then be sold up to 50% off to the public, or used directly into the building of families’ homes. You may not think your home improvement items are worth much, but they’re worth a lot to the ReStore. It could mean everything to a family in need.

The ReStore accepts a variety of home improvement items. Chances are, what you have, the ReStore will gladly take. And to make it all even easier, all your donations are tax-deductible. You are only a drive away from helping others in need. You have two, extremely easy and convenient options. You can either drop off your donations at the ReStore - 25948 Business Center Dr. Redlands, CA 92374 - during its opening hours of 9am-6pm, or give the ReStore a call to schedule a FREE pickup (909) 799-6738. Shawn, our donation pickup employee, will be more than happy to pick up your donations.

GET TO KNOW SHAWN!

Shawn is an outgoing guy who would love to pick up your wonderful donations. He loves the outdoors, and has a family of two kids (with one on the way!), two cats, and two dogs. He enjoys spending time with his family, especially by going to rodeos with them. Shawn describes working at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore as “a lot of fun.”  He “enjoys working with (his) co-workers and all the volunteers in the ReStore.” And Shawn knows the impact his job has on the community. “It is great to know that all the work I do in the ReStore is helping families in need in our community,” he said honestly. Shawn would love nothing more than for you to send some donations his way!

The ReStore depends on donations. If you want to see more low-income households receive homes, and more change in the community, please donate!

For more information about the ReStore, call us at (909) 799-6738 or visit www.habitatsb.org/restore

Donate, Shop, Volunteer 

at the 

Tuesday - Saturday 

9am - 6pm

25948 Business Center Dr. Redlands, CA 92374 

Refurbishing a Wooden Coffee Table

DIY with Khoz, Habitat Volunteer!

DIY (Do It Yourself) projects are simple, given the right vision and planning prior to the start of the project! It is best to start out with small projects and work your way up as you become experienced, skilled, and confident at your craft.

Let’s start off with a project that is beginner friendly.

“Refurbishing a wooden coffee table” (coffee table from the Habitat ReStore!!)

Refurbishing a coffee table may seem tough; however, this is a simple project. All in all, this project should take 3 days to complete. 

Before:

After: 

Step 1 Sanding:

The first step would be to take a sander and gently sand down the top layer of the coffee table. You can sand the table down the old fashion way with sanding paper, but this will take a lot of time. I would recommend buying a ¼ inch sander and ¼ inch sanding paper for this project. The sanding time will vary depending on the size and style of the table! The table in the picture above took me roughly 5 hours to completely sand. 

Step 2 Staining:
After sanding, prep the table for staining! Next take a dampened rag and wipe of all the wood dust of the table.  After the wipe down, apply the stain to the table. Some people use a fine paint brush to apply stain; however, I prefer using a rag. Staining is fairly simple and should take 30 minutes to 1 hour to complete depending on the project; be sure to apply the stain in the direction of the wood grain. Make sure to lightly dip the edge of a rag into the stain can and then wipe the rag against the grain of the wood.  If you feel the stain you have applied is not dark enough let the table dry for about 10 minutes and reapply another coat of wood stain. For my DIY coffee table project, I applied two coats of Walnut colored wood stain. Let the stain dry for one full day after finishing the process. 

Step 3 Clear Coat:
For the final step, apply clear coat to the table. Clear coats come in glossy, semi-glossy, or matte options; select the clear coat type based on your preference. I used the matte clear coat on my project; matte is better suited for older/antique furniture. Also, for this step you will need a fine paint brush! 

Apply the clear coat in the direction of the wood grain. You will need to apply three coats in total. After the first coat has been applied, let the coat dry for two hours.  Repeat this step for the second coat. For the third coat wait 24 hours before application.  Before applying the third coat, lightly sand the table.  After applying the third coat, allow the table 48 hours to fully cure before putting into use.

Items needed:

¼ inch sand paper

¼ inch sander

Paint brush

Can of clear coat

Can of stain

Rag/Cloth

Tarp

What We Build!

Join Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area and HELP BUILD IT!

Think you need to swing a hammer to be a Habitat volunteer? Not true! Habitat offers many different volunteer opportunities!

• Volunteer in the ReStore
• Volunteer in the office
• Volunteer during a special event
• Join a volunteer committee

For more information on volunteering with Habitat, please call our office at 909-478-1176 or visit our website at www.habitatsb.org/volunteer. 

Do you have old electronics cluttering up your home?

Drop them off at the Habitat ReStore in Redlands! 

It has been 1 year since Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area teamed up with All Green Electronics Recycling to provide the community with an ongoing drop off center to recycle e-waste. Since then, we have collected a total of 57,819 pounds of e-waste!

Lots of old computers! 

That’s 57,819 lbs. of electronic waste diverted from our local landfills!!

Thank you All Green for this wonderful partnership! And thank you to all the members of the community for recycling responsibly!

What is e-waste? That dated laptop in your hall closet, that VCR you haven’t used since you got the new DVD player, the dust-covered monitor in your garage, or basically anything with a plug that is unused, obsolete or non-working. Members of the community and businesses are encouraged to clean out their garage or attic and recycle their old electronics. Bring all of your old electronics, including, but not limited to: computers, monitors, televisions, printers, mobile phones, laptops, DVD players, VCRs, microwaves, calculators, iPods, cables and wires, telephones, fax machines, scanners, computer parts, and more. All Green Electronics Recycling promises to recycle everything it accepts in North America and to never send electronics to a landfill or overseas for processing.

Drop off all your e-waste at the ReStore - free of charge! 

E-waste contains heavy metals such as lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, and zinc that contaminate our soil and water, and is responsible for 70 percent of all heavy metals found in landfills today. A recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency says e-waste in landfills will grow four-fold over the next five years.

About All Green Electronics Recycling

All Green Electronics Recycling strives to make responsible electronics recycling easy and efficient. We are a full-service electronics recycler and collector with hundreds of free drop-off locations, and pickup services. All Green Electronics Recycling currently collects over one million pounds of electronics each month and has the capacity to process up to 100 million pounds of electronic waste per year. All of the electronics we collect are processed in North America using our own processing center and other responsible recycler partner facilities. We recycle everything we accept and never send anything overseas for processing. http://www.allgreenrecycling.com/

Welcome!

Welcome to Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area’s blog! The Habitat blog will be a tool to communicate with our volunteers, donors, supporters, and ReStore shoppers! We will be writing about Habitat builds, events, ReStore, and volunteer stories. We would love to hear your Habitat stories and feedback. So, please write to us or leave a comment!

Here at Habitat for Humanity, we have a dynamic staff that focuses on providing affordable housing to families in the San Bernardino area. For our first blog post, we want to put names to faces and meet the people who make Habitat happen!

Meet the Habitat Staff below:

Dennis Baxter

Executive Director

Hello and welcome to our blog! I became a Member of the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity in January 2010. In January 2011, I became Board Vice President and in January 2012, I became President. I voluntarily stepped down as President in September 2012 to accept the position of Executive Director! My past experience has included Elected City Official, where I served as Chair of the Grant Committee, on the RDA Committee, and the CDBG Funding Committee. I have also been a Radio and Television Broadcaster, Station Manager, and Business Development Manager for a community-owned TV station.

What I enjoy most about Habitat for Humanity is the ability to help families get into their first home and creating opportunities for affordable housing that attracts new businesses, create jobs, and make communities safer. Together we have the ability to change the lives of families and communities for generations to come.

Interesting Fact: When I’m not working for Habitat, I enjoy great movies. My personal favorites are “Citizen Kane,” To Kill a Mockingbird,” and Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun.” I also enjoy Nat Geo, Discovery, and the Science Channels. Oh yes, and AMC, because sometimes old movies are the best!

Deborah Harmon

Acquisitions Director

Hello! My name is Deborah and I am the Acquisitions Director for Habitat for Humanity. I was on the Board of Directors for 18 months before I started my position at Habitat. My previous experience is in real estate – from sales, land planning, new construction, and rehabilitations.  I have also been involved in Christian counseling ministries and short term missions over the years.

It is exciting to combine both of my areas of interest while working at Habitat!

Interesting Fact: I have a strong interest in art! I've worked on major public art projects, including bridges and murals! Also, I paint with oils, enjoy photography, design jewelry, and love interior designing!

Dan Brizendine

Construction Director

Hello! I have worked with Habitat for Humanity for 1 year and 4 months as the Construction Director. I have 30 years of experience working in construction – in all aspects of building and construction.

Working for Habitat for Humanity has been a lifelong dream and I enjoy helping people and training volunteers on the construction site!

Interesting Fact: I love coffee and donuts in the morning!

Maria Whiteley

Bookkeeper

Hello! I have been with Habitat for Humanity for 5 years! I am a graduate of Cal State University San Bernardino with a degree in Accounting. I am responsible for all of the financial records of H4HSBA.

Habitat is a wonderful organization to work for. My co-workers are amazing and give 100% all of the time. I love that we partner with families to provide affordable homes!

Interesting Fact: I love to read, watch movies, and camp!

Maritza Solis

Volunteer Coordinator and Office Manager

Hello Everyone! I have been working at Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area for 4 years now. I actually started as a volunteer. My first day at the job site, it was over 110 degrees and I was given a shovel to level out the lot along with 6 other volunteers. I remember thinking this is definitely not what I wanted to do. I wanted to help build a house, wear a hard hat, and use a hammer! At that moment, I didn't realize that every volunteer had an important job at the construction site from picking up nails; to making sure there was enough cold water, to digging a hole.

Eventually, I got hired as the Volunteer Coordinator and my volunteering experience at the site gave me an edge. It helped me encourage volunteers that were not very fond of certain jobs, understand the greater mission. Every assignment whether small or big is still needed to complete the job! Today when volunteers wish they were doing something else, I always tell them about my volunteer experience in Redlands. Many are amazed that I would go back after the first time, but I did because I really enjoyed the camaraderie at the site. And I have to say this is what I most enjoy about working at Habitat!

Interesting Fact: I enjoy hiking and salsa dancing!

Rhea Stumm

Communications Manager

Hello and thank you for visiting the Habitat blog! I am the Communications Manager at Habitat for Humanity San Bernardino Area. In this role, I am responsible for the marketing and event planning for the Habitat affiliate and the ReStore. I started working at Habitat in April 2011 and assisted in the opening of the ReStore in June 2011.

Prior to working at Habitat for Humanity, I dedicated 2 years to National Service, which included volunteer work in the Gulf helping communities affected by hurricanes and floods. While volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Texas, Mississippi and Florida, I fell in love with the Habitat Mission!

Interesting Fact: I love to ride my stand up jet ski in the summer!

Gilbert Galicia

ReStore Manager

Hello! My name is Gilbert and I am the ReStore Manager. I have been with Habitat for Humanity for 1 year. My past experience includes 7 years of construction and 10 years of retail.

I enjoy working with all the people that walk into the ReStore! All the customers, volunteers, and donors….and I know that we are all working together for a good cause.

Interesting Fact: I love to watch movies with my daughter.  

Shawn Duncan

ReStore Warehouse Operator

Hello! My name is Shawn and I am the Warehouse Operator at the Habitat ReStore. I have been with the ReStore for 1 year and my role is to pick up all the wonderful donations!

I enjoy driving around the San Bernardino area and meeting all our great donors!

Interesting Fact: I love to fish and play with my kids.

Melissa Herrera

ReStore Cashier

My name is Melissa and I have been with Habitat for Humanity since February 2012. Before working at the Habitat ReStore, I have had many different jobs such as working at a movie theater, tutoring, and touring the US with PETA. Currently, I work at the ReStore as a cashier, assist customers and sort donations.  

I enjoy working at Habitat for Humanity because it is a non-profit organization.

Interesting Fact: I’m vegan!

Natalie Sanchez

ReStore Cashier

Hi! I’m Natalie and I am a ReStore cashier. I have been working at Habitat for Humanity for 7 months and enjoy working with all the ReStore customers, donors, and my co-workers. My past experience includes retail and customer service.

I enjoy working with my co-workers and Habitat is a great organization to work for!

Interesting Fact: I like “Dia de los Muertos” skulls.