Month in review: October 2014

By Chris Johnson,
Director of Communications

It’s finally starting to feel a little bit like fall here in Georgia. This is often a time when our covenant partners hammer out plans for the next year and ramp up the end-of-year fundraising efforts to make those plans a reality.

But that doesn’t mean the hammers have stopped swinging. In fact, one of the biggest events this month was last week’s completion of The Fuller Center’s 56-home Lambi Village in Haiti. Lambi was a great plan — building an entire community where families were full partners in the building process and not the recipients of the kind of well-meaning handouts that have unintentionally crippled the Haitian people.

With apologies to George Peppard’s character Hannibal on TV’s "The A-Team" (my favorite show back in 8th grade), I love it when a plan comes together. If you didn’t get that, congratulations, you haven’t watched too much bad TV. Haiti has seen plenty of plans made and plans fizzle, often before they even got off the ground. But Lambi stands as a testament to The Fuller Center’s determination to follow through on plans and to help people help themselves.

Click here for the complete report on last week’s dedication of Lambi Village.

Now, here’s a sampling of other happenings in October. Click the links for full details:

• A couple of wonderful fellas — Chuck Vogt and Ron Fisher of The Fuller Center’s partner in Indianapolis — were honored as Distinguished Hoosiers by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
• Here’s a great story from the Valley Times in Valley, Alabama, about a veteran of the Iraq war and his family, who now live in a home refurbished by The Fuller Center in Lanett, Alabama.
• Speaking of beautiful Lanett, our founder’s hometown, I was there yesterday to cover some of the Block of Blessings work being done by more than 400 students from Point University there. Here are some of the photos, and I’ll have a report next week that includes video.
• Today, we rolled out some tweaks on our main website. Be sure to check out and bookmark FullerCenter.org!
• The Shreveport Times reports on how high school students are helping us build another home in Bossier City, La.
• The city of Gary, Indiana, (where we had the Jackson Street of Dreams build in August) has deeded nine more vacant houses to The Fuller Center to refurbish and fill with good families.
• The Fuller Center is teaming up with VivaCell in Armenia to help 25 families get good homes.
• Our Bicycle Adventure’s inaugural, two-day Silver Comet Trail Ride was a big success.
• In his October blog, President David Snell reflects on a busy summer.
• The Fuller Center of Louisville was presented with the Mayor’s Spirit of Louisville award.
• And, we’ve had more Global Builders trips open up for 2015!

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