A group of people from Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Hudson, Wisconsin lifts a portion of a wall frame off a semi-trailer.
They work together to set it upright and drill it into place on the foundation of a new build.
They’ll spend this week getting the house and hopefully, the roof framed in.
“One of our strengths as a group and as a mission group we have is we raise money within our congregation to purchase the walls for a project. I’m a contractor. We have the ability to pre-build the walls. That’s kind of an outreach program that we do within our community. They can all come in and build the walls. We do that in advance. Then we bring the walls with us. We install the walls here. We give them a nice shot in the harm is the way we like to see it,” said Mark Arneson, the project manager for the group.
The shot in the arm is much appreciated by the future homeowner Becky Rick and her 10-year-old daughter Sadie.
“I just want to say thanks for everybody to come and help. It’s really nice of them,” said Rick.
It’s also appreciated by Habitat for Humanity of the Northwoods.
This is the 25th house the local chapter is building. The organization has two houses currently in construction for the first time in its program history.
“There’s a big need for affordable housing. Our mission is to help families find affordable housing. It’d be nice if we could do 100 a year, but we do the best we can. We’ve been doing one a year. Now this is the first time two a year. We’re hoping to maybe get up to three or four. The more we can do the better,” Executive Director Dave Havel.
The land for this house was donated by Aspirus.
Like the other house being built on Thayer Street, students from Rhinelander High School will help build this one on Itasca Street when classes resume in the fall.
The Thayer Street home is scheduled to be completed at the end of next month.
This home will be done sometime next spring.
It’s a moment Rick, who has now been putting in work at both homes, can’t wait for.
“It’ll be nice just to have something instead of a rundown apartment,” she said.
You can learn more about the Habitat for Humanity program here.
