Remember when you were a kid and you would build what you thought was going to be your whole life using a LEGO set?
You would build everything from the skyscraper where you worked to your dream car. Of course if you built your dream car, you had to build your dream house. That’s exactly what Habitat for Humanity for Bulloch County did for its newest homeowner, Maria Lipsey, and her family.
The LEGO Company’s goal is to “build a sustainable future and make a positive impact on the planet our children will inherit.” In the home dedication for Lipsey this past Sunday, that sentiment couldn’t have been more true.
Habitat for Humanity of Bulloch County just finished Lipsey's home -- Habitat House #60 -- and is in the process of building 6 other homes just like it. Maria Lipsey’s new home has the latest Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) technology. This home structure is highly durable and made to withstand extreme hazardous conditions such as category 3 and 4 hurricanes and EF5 tornadoes.
Not only that, these homes are also sustainable, non-combustible, reduce expenses, and reduce construction time. Maria Lipsey can expect for her electricity bill to be less than $50, and it is just more economically efficient as a whole.
“They’re basically like four foot long, 16 inch tall, 11 inch blocks of styrofoam that are hollow in the center,” Aaron Marcinkevich, lead construction manager said. “It’s actually like a sheet of two and a half inches of styrofoam and another sheet of two and a half inches of styrofoam that are held together by a hard plastic webbing, and they have teeth on the top and the bottom. So you assemble them almost like a LEGO set, and they lock together just like LEGO blocks do.”
The process of building this home would not have been possible if it wasn’t for retired Georgia Southern professor and philanthropist June Spencer. House #60 has been dubbed the “Randy Trotter House” in memory of Spencer's son, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and passed away after enduring 11 years of treatment.
“As a child, he often said he was going to build a house for me,” June said. "He loved building with LEGOs as a child and then actually built several workshops as a child.”
Her son never got to build that house for her, but she constantly works with Habitat because she is able to see how it has made a difference in people’s lives, especially children, and allows for time to “thank the Lord God for his many blessings and loving kindness towards us."
The mission statement for Habitat for Humanity is to “bring communities together to help families build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.” In other words, it is based on sweat equity and long hours of hard work, it involves the community, and it teaches us to serve each other.
“It’s overwhelming to see how generous this community is,” Lehman Franklin, State Representative for House District 160 said. “This is a very practical way to witness someone’s life being changed for the better."
And Maria Lipsey’s life definitely has been changed.
“This has been a huge blessing,” Lipsey said. “I’ve been trying to buy a home for a long time, and we finally have a new home that we can call ours.”
Maria and her three children, Makel, Vonté, and Ava, will hopefully be able to move into their new home by the end of the month and start their new lives with a good foundation thanks to her family, friends, the sponsors, board members, and many volunteers.