MONTH IN REVIEW: July 2015

By Chris Johnson,
Director of Communications

It feels a little bit like summer out there, huh? OK, it feels more like the rim of a volcano out there, but the work of The Fuller Center is heating up across the nation and around the world. Here is a mere sampling of some of the things involving our affordable housing ministry that happened in July:

• For the third year, Sosé & Allen’s Legacy Foundation and Fuller Center for Housing Armenia Join Forces for an annual build. This one featured 34 volunteers from the Armenian Youth Federation’s Youth Corps program who came from the U.S. to help the Gziryan family from the city of Ashtarak in the Aragatsotn region build their homes. Our partner in Armenia shared these great photos from this event.
• Speaking of great photos from Armenia, our partners there also shared this nice set from a two-week Global Builders trip by our friends at the Armenian General Benevolent Union of Montreal.
• We dedicated our first home in Thailand. This is a great effort led by long-time volunteers and supporters Boots and Ramsay Walker and already has a few Global Builders teams lined up to work. Click here for photos from the dedication.
• We released a new free guide to conducting a Fuller Center-themed Sunday School class or Vacation Bible School event; it includes a cool pattern to cut out and assemble a little house that can be used as a fundraising kit. Click here to see and/or download the 6-page guide.
• I was directly involved with one of our success stories as I spoke to the kids at Crossroads United Methodist Church’s Vacation Bible School in Perry, Georgia, where I live and volunteer with the new covenant partner there. A relatively small group of kids raised $341 in spare change for The Perry Georgia Fuller Center and the church has made The Fuller Center a mission partner. Click here to see more about Crossroads and their great kids.
• Our partners at the North American Retail Hardware Association and their support of our work, as well as their sponsorship of the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure, was featured in this new article in Hardware Retailing magazine.
• Global Builders coordinator Allen Slabaugh led a work trip to Ghana, and you can see photos from that trip here. (I visited this site two years ago, and it was great to see the progress!)
• The United Christian Home in Minden, Louisiana (site of the 2011 Millard Fuller Legacy Build) donated a property to our Fuller Center covenant partner in Webster Parish as you can read about here.
• Also in Louisiana, the Hammond Daily Star published this nice article about a woman who is riding 1,200 of the 4,000 miles on our Bicycle Adventure.
• Speaking of press coverage of our Bicycle Adventure, here’s a nice piece by the Peoria Journal Star about our Build Day there. And here are articles by two Colorado newspapers: The Canon City Daily Record and The Cortez Journal.
• We brought the history section of our website up to date once again, as you can see here.
• Ann Trousdale has just released a new book about the man who inspired the concepts by partnership housing with "Cotton Patch Rebel: The Story of Clarence Jordan." The book features a great forward by our co-founder Linda Fuller and an endorsement on the cover by our President David Snell. Click here to read a little about it and to see a video of David and Ann discussing the book and Clarence.
• We opened registration for the Bicycle Adventure’s two-day Silver Comet Ride. This is a two-day ride Oct. 10-11 on a trail that does not allow motorized vehicles. It also should be much cooler by then!
• Our friends at the Fuller Center for Housing of Louisville, Kentucky (hosts of the 2014 Legacy Build) were honored with a Governor’s Service Award for Faith-Based Nonprofit of the Year.
• The Baton Rouge Advocate has this great story about an artist’s exhibit that will eventually be part of a Fuller Center home. Click here to see what I’m talking about because it’s too hard to explain here, but it’s worth checking out!
• Independent We Stand published this nice blog post about why The Fuller Center is such a great partner for independent hardware retailers.
• And, last but certainly not least, Director of International Field Operations Ryan Iafigliola visited Nepal and saw the 11 Fuller Center housing in the Trishuli village that were undamaged unlike 80-90% percent of the homes in the area after April’s earthquake. That gives us the responsibility to be a leader in the building of safe, permanent homes in the area. So, not only will we be sharing our successful building technology with other groups, but also we have launched an effort to build at least 200 new permanent homes over the next two years. But we need your help! Click here to learn more.