Habitat

WESTMINSTER — Carroll County's Department of Public Works, Bureau of Solid Waste, announced this week that Habitat for Humanity will open a ReStore unit at the Northern Landfill Recycling Center in Westminster. ReStore is a nonprofit retail organization that resells new and used building materials, home furnishings and appliances to the public. ReStore sells donated goods to raise funds to build or renovate affordable housing for families in need. Donations gathered at the landfill will be taken to the ReStore Home Improvement Center in Frederick.

Rita Custer, of Aberdeen, has always been self-reliant. A former assistant manager for a Rite Aid Pharmacy, she is currently living on unemployment due to prolonged illness. She is also raising two sons, age 11 and 16. Her oldest, Justin, has Down's syndrome and has been the victim of bullying in his own back yard. For many years, Custer's wish has been for a place where her sons could play in safety. Justin is a client of the Arc Northern Chesapeake region, and after his mother suffered two strokes, the organization stepped up to help.

When Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981, he and Rosalynn Carter pledged to dedicate their lives not to politicking but to performing "public service on a global scale." They have done so by applying their amateur carpenters' skills to building houses for the poor and homeless in slum areas of cities in the United States and abroad.On Friday, Mr. and Mrs. Carter are scheduled to come to Baltimore to kick off a fund-raising campaign to restore 100 dilapidated brick row houses over the next five years in the depressed Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood.

Leonard Sachs and Lainy LeBow-Sachs have turned their world outside-in. The renovations and additions to the Baltimore power couple's Reisterstown home make it ideal not only for entertaining large groups, but for entertaining birds, too. Fond of plants and flowering shrubs as well, Leonard commissioned a solarium that defies Mid-Atlantic winters. And the flagstone that was once the exterior of the house is now part of the study and den and informal dining area, giving the house a rustic, masculine quality.

Affordable-housing provider Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake said its new chief executive — who brings a construction and finance background — will come on board this month. Mike Posko, a principal with real estate consulting firm Cross Street Partners in Baltimore, replaces longtime CEO Mike Mitchell at the helm of the nonprofit after Mitchell's resignation in November. Before Cross Street, Posko worked at developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse and at the Federal Reserve.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. joined officials from Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake on Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the nonprofit housing agency's new offices in Halethorpe. The organization, which helps provide new or refurbished homes for eligible needy families, recently combined its Anne Arundel and Baltimore County facilities and staff. Leasing the 38,000-square-foot office on Commerce Drive triples the space for 38 full-time employees, two VISTA members and 11 AmeriCorps members.

Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna, the ecumenical non-profit housing organization devoted to building, renovating and repairing homes in partnership with low-income families, has the appointment of Katie York and Sarah Colenda to its board of directors. Katie York, of Aberdeen, is program specialist in Health Care Careers at Cecil College in North East. She is also a member of both the Committee on Nursing and Allied Health and the Administrative Professional Organization. York says of her appointment to the board, "As someone who lives in Harford County and works in Cecil County, I feel it is imperative to increase awareness of Habitat in my local community, both in regards to fundraising efforts and potential homeowners.

Aelred Geis tried to make the world better for birds and people, in that order. He studied ways to coax birds back into urban areas, helped persuade Jim Rouse to set aside 1,000 acres of prime Howard County real estate for a nature preserve, turned his Clarksville farm into a wildlife sanctuary and not only built a better bird feeder, but also filled it with superior seed that he developed. Geis could be loud and confrontational with a touch of arrogance when the circumstances warranted it, his friends fondly remember.

Providing habitat for the county's ring-necked pheasant could curtail the decline in its population, a supervisor from the wildlife program of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said."

The Carroll County chapter of Habitat for Humanity, a non-denominational Christian housing ministry, is battling bad weather to finish its first project."

For the first time in its 20-year history of building safe, decent and affordable homes in Harford County, Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna is building its a home in the heart of Bel Air. The groundbreaking ceremony for The House that Bel Air Built, at 404 Giles Street, took place recently before a crowd of elected officials, sponsors, volunteers and staff. The House That Bel Air Built is a project sponsored by the Harford County Government, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Town of Bel Air, the Bel Air Downtown Alliance and Harford Mutual Insurance Companies.

Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake has received a $1 million grant from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, of Owings Mills, that will go toward building and rehabbing homes in Baltimore. “We are proud to receive support from the Weinberg Foundation to assist the financially disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals and families in our homeownership program,” said Habitat Chesapeake CEO Mike Posko. The grant will go toward rehabilitating 56 vacant properties over two years, Posko said in a statement.

The local branch of Habitat for Humanity has already received several properties as part of a nationwide commitment by Bank of America to donate 2,000 vacant homes to the affordable housing organization. “These donations can make a dramatic difference for so many Habitat affiliates, increasing their suitable property inventory,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, in a statement this week. Habitat's outposts across the U.S. are receiving the homes from Bank of America on a case-by-case basis, as they become available.

Sales at all three ReStore locations Saturday will support a Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake home under construction in Baltimore's Orchard Ridge community. Shoppers will find a broad selection of quality building materials, appliances, furniture, cabinets, flooring, lighting and plumbing materials at affordable prices. In addition to the regular discounts, the stores are offering 50 percent off all lighting and 20 percent off all donated items. The Dundalk, Pasadena and Halethorpe ReStores will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sales profits enable the local Habitat chapter to continue its affordable homeownership opportunities in the greater Baltimore metropolitan area as well as in Anne Arundel and Howard counties.

The sign proclaiming his little urban yard a "wildlife habitat" became more than a label the day Dirk Geratz found the nest of baby rabbits. He'd hoped for robins and butterflies as he checked off the ground cover, the bird baths and the berry bushes on his certification paperwork and forked over $20 - plus extra for the sign. "I was amazed that a rabbit would want to raise her young right there in a side yard," Geratz said. "I would have thought they would have found it inhospitable.

It's been said it takes a village to raise a child, but in this scenario, it takes a community to build a home. For the past seven years, Habitat for HumanitySusquehanna and Harford Technical High School, a vocational school in Bel Air, have partnered to build homes for those in need. This summer, the students were able to give back to one of their own and help an alumna achieve the American dream of homeownership. “It's really nice,” says the new homeowner, Kimberly Johnson of Aberdeen.

Howard County's Christmas trees soon will sleep with the fishes.Along with the Quick Release Bass Masters, a regional fishing group, the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks will install about two dozen Christmas trees in Warfield Pond this spring."

Thank you everyone who participated yesterday in Clear Your Clutter Day. We had an overwhelming response with 623 cars coming through. That number does not include the many cars who got in line, waited an hour and decided to move on before actually coming through. At times the traffic snaked around and through the college and there were three aisles of cars working their way through the parking lot. HCC Security did a fantastic job of managing the traffic. I am profoundly appreciative of the people who stepped in at the last minute to help and who without planning gave up their Saturday just to keep the event moving including: BumbleJunk of Bel Air - Ryan and Stan; Rebecca and Annabel Jessop; Amanda McGhee and family; Greg Deal, Steve Pulliam and Lou at HCC. Thank you to the partners who came on time: SARC,Lions Club, Habitat for Humanity, Always Recycling, The Shred Mill, College Hunks Hauling Junk, HCC Vowlunteers.

Mike Posko was building a house with Habitat for Humanity International — in Nepal — when the Baltimore-area affiliate emailed him late last year to ask him to come in for an interview. He got the job. Posko, who took over as Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake's chief executive in February, said he's passionate about the group's affordable-housing mission. The nonprofit builds new homes and rebuilds vacant ones in the Baltimore region with the help of volunteers, then sells them at no profit and with no-interest mortgages to workers with modest incomes.