Habitat women volunteers help build new houses from scratch

Chronicle Media Staff

Volunteers get instructions on the next phase of work as they help build a Habitat for Humanity house on Solfisburg Ave. in Aurora last Saturday. Odette Uwamahoro (below, with hat) helps assist with a nail removal during frame assembly. She andher family will move into the house upon completion in November. (Photos by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

About two dozen women volunteers from nine area towns helped construct a Habitat for Humanity house for an Aurora family last Saturday.

Clad in pink tee-shirts and work clothes, the objective was to assemble and raise walls on a concrete foundation and install a roof at a site at 1557 Solfisburg Ave. in Aurora.

Volunteers came from from Aurora, Batavia, Naperville, Oswego, Sugar Grove, Maple Park, Yorkville, Joliet and Romeoville.

Among volunteers were Aurora residents Odette and Theo Uwamahoro  and their two daughters, who were selected for the house by by Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, an Aurora-based nonprofit organization.

The family hopes to move into the four-bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom home by November.

Chris Schindler, Fox Valley Habitat executive coordinator and Al Green, construction supervisor, led volunteers at the Solfisburg site.

Oak Brook-based Oxford Bank and Trust and Euclid Insurance Services, Inc., pledged $150,000 for the house. Other donations include shingles, roofing, windows, plumbing products and garage door and door opener.

The Solfisburg project is the second part of a two-day build for 10th annual National Women Build Week.

The Aurora observance opened last Friday when a half dozen women raised trusses and installed a roof on a garage at the Maria and Juan Martinez home at 564 Spruce St. in Aurora.

Two volunteers fine tune a window opening in a frame that was set to be raised later on Saturday as part of a Habitat for Humanity “Women Build” event at a work site on Solfisburg Ave. in Aurora. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

The national Women Build Week is held annually the week before

Mother’s Day. Designed to spotlight home ownership challenges faced by women, the program has attracted more than 98,000 women from all 50 states at nine previous events.

The Fox Valley group is also holding a raffle for an afghan made by Lawella Szweda, a future Habitat homeowner. Tickets are $1 each and proceeds will benefit Habitat for Humanity.

A drawing is scheduled for June 20. Call (630) 206-5038 for more information.