On Sunday, May 9, local women spent Mother’s Day volunteering to help Marsha Davenport complete construction on her Habitat home in Tennessee City in Dickson. After the work was done, volunteers held a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for the new home at 105 Fire Tower Rd.
Polio crippled Davenport as a child, making it dangerous for her to maneuver the steps and uneven floors of the mobile home where she lived as an adult. Up until a few years ago, she worked full-time at the local hospital and hosted a radio talk show with Dr. Jimmy Jackson. Now her disability prevents her from working.
“When it’s cold, I won’t have to stay in bed all day to stay warm,” said Davenport. “The wind just blows right through the place I used to live. My new home will be a nice house I worked and paid for myself, all mine, not one provided by my parents or my husband.”
The Sunday event was part of Habitat for Humanity International’s National Women Build Week, May 1–9, sponsored by Lowe’s, which recruits, educates and nurtures women to build and advocate for simple, decent and affordable houses in their communities. Across all 50 states, approximately 7,000 women volunteers helped build at more than 200 Habitat for Humanity construction sites. Lowe’s provided Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity’s Dickson Division a $5,000 Lowe’s store gift card, as well as in-store volunteer training for this build. Nationwide, Lowe’s committed more than $1 million to National Women Build Week.
Sponsors for Davenport’s Habitat home are Lowe’s, Publix Foundation, Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Charlotte Fagan UMC, Armstrong Flooring, First Farmers and Merchants Bank, TriStar Bank, Walnut Street Church of Christ, First United Methodist Church, and the Nashville Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Proceeds from Habitat’s fall bowl-a-thon and golf tournament also helped fund the home.
At the third annual Houses of Hope luncheon sponsored by TriStar Bank on March 22, the Dickson community showed its continued support of Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to help more residents become homeowners with contributions totaling $30,000.
Dickson residents have asked for it, and Nashville Area Habitat’s Dickson Division is ready to bring it: a Habitat HomeStore in Dickson!
On Sunday, November 8, Amy Davidson received the keys to the Habitat home she purchased in Maple Valley in Dickson. Amy’s house is the fifth Habitat home built since Dickson’s merger with Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity in July of 2007.
September and October events will help build more Habitat homes in Dickson County