Florida Hometown Title & Escrow and Sears Hometown Store of LaBelle put up the exterior walls in three hours. (Submitted photo)[/caption]

Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties broke ground Saturday, December 10th, 2016, on a new Habitat home in LaBelle at 3021 Lancer Road.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, 40 volunteers from across Southwest Florida came together to raise the walls on the first LaBelle Habitat home to be sponsored by Florida Hometown Title & Escrow and Sears Hometown Store of LaBelle.

“This is our first Habitat Home, and we truly enjoyed the community experience of “building hope” with Habitat. It was inspiring to see so many local volunteers and those from surrounding areas invest time and care in LaBelle. In a few short hours, all of the exterior walls were raised and nailed into place,” said Jacqueline Peregrin, Esq., of Florida Hometown Title & Escrow. Volunteers from the Lee County offices of United Real Estate Infinity and Country Cooling were well represented on the wall raising team.

“Side by side, sponsors worked with the future homeowner Fidel Lemus. The energy and drive of the skilled volunteers we had on the jobsite was impressive,” states Habitat President and CEO, Kitty Green.

“It was inspiring to see the concrete slab come to life so quickly, becoming the outline of a house in just one day,” said Shannon DePue, manager of the Sears Hometown Store of LaBelle. “We look forward to supporting future home building projects with Habitat.”

Habitat homes are built through the use of volunteer labor and donations of money and materials. The homes are then sold to the homeowners with an interest-free mortgage and monthly payments set at less than 30% of the homeowner’s income, making homeownership an affordable reality. Habitat homeowners must qualify financially for the program; save $1,700 toward their closing costs; attend classes focused on homeownership, budgeting and home maintenance; and complete 300 hours of “sweat equity” by volunteering at Habitat.

For more information, call (239) 652-0434 or visit www.habitat4humanity.org