Habitat building key relationship

Thank you for the latest editorial support for our bold new Habitat for Humanity project, Build Southeast. We are on schedule to bring the house down Broadway on its journey to 1640 N. Main St., on March 21. It should be quite a sight.

We can't grow unless we develop deeper and broader volunteer resources to match our resource development and our backlog of Habitat partner families, We have 12 approved families waiting for houses. This project is designed to inspire the 10,000 students and 1,000 employees of Southeast Missouri State University to join our efforts on a regular basis. The university marketing apparatus has identified 25 percent of the future student population as seeking a tangible, hands-on, community-engagement experience to supplement their academic pursuits. That's why the university is so strongly backing this project. I hope, going forward, this project will prove so successful that the university's marketing will highlight an annual Build Southeast opportunity.

With projects underway in Sikeston, Perryville, Jackson, Marble Hill and Cape Girardeau, we need 3,000 volunteer hours scheduled for constructing each house. Five houses will be completed in Cape Girardeau this year, and one more each will be completed in Sikeston, Perryville, Jackson and Marble Hill. That's a lot of volunteer hours, and our future growth will require more.

Your support of our construction, fundraising and volunteer recruitment and of our new ReStore is priceless. We cannot continue to succeed without you, and I am grateful.

ROBIN COLE, President, Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, Cape Girardeau