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Your Incredible Neighbors: Local Habitat president helps families become homeowners
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| Stephany Brown |
By Karen Walenga, Green Valley News
Stephany Brown will never forget helping her first Habitat for Humanity family get into their new home.
A senior citizen, his wife and their daughter, who had been living in a small travel trailer, were ready to make the down payment on their brand new Habitat home
The husband set up a card table and chairs outside the cramped trailer, and his wife fanned away the flies as Brown wrote out the check for him to sign.
After joining the Santa Cruz Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity in 2000 and serving as its president since 2003, the memory still brings tears to Brown’s eyes.
Habitat, dedicated to providing affordable housing to working families in need, is proud to provide a hand up, not a handout, say Brown and the local chapter’s vice president, Wayne Pflueger.
The Santa Cruz Valley chapter, formed in 1996 as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity-Tucson, currently is building its 14th home, this one a “school-build” at Sahuarita High School that is destined for a lot in Amado’s Lakewood neighborhood.
The best part of it all for Brown is getting to know the families.
The most challenging for her? “Waking up and getting to the job site at 6 a.m. with coffee and doughnuts,” she says with a laugh.
Brown makes time to get involved with almost every aspect of Habitat of Humanity work, from helping construct the homes to, as president, setting the chapter’s direction, making committee assignments and finding good board members.
“We’ve had a good time, and seen great changes in Habitat. We’ve all grown,” say Brown and Pflueger, who has been with the chapter since 1999.
Those changes include homes that now cost about $100,000, compared to about $50,000 in 1996, Pflueger says.
However, he adds, proven benefits of homeownership include families participating in their community and children who are better behaved and do better in school.
“And the parents work hard to pay the mortgage,” Brown adds.
The local Habitat chapter currently is focused on fundraising and finding board members with networking and building skills.
At the top of its list of needs is a construction site supervisor, someone with construction experience who can read construction plans and train people.
Also, the chapter needs someone to help produce a newsletter three times a year.
Brown, 59, formerly of Philadelphia, has lived in Green Valley eight years.
She spent 23 years working for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which became Penn Central then Conrail. She started as a keypunch operator and worked her way up to manager of contracts administration before being injured in a collision in 1995 and going on disability.
According to Pflueger, Brown “works so well with our families and the board up in Tucson. And she uses her contacts to get good (Santa Cruz Valley chapter) board members. She’s connected to the community because she volunteers for everything,” he says with a smile.
Brown has volunteered for eight years with the Casa de Esperanza community center in Green Valley, serving lunch there to senior citizens three days a week.
She also, for the past two years, has spent two days a week volunteering at the Country Fair White Elephant thrift shop, “sorting shoes, pocketbooks and tidying up.”
She’s a member of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church’s Dancing Divas line dancers and Red Hat Society, and, for about six months, has been helping pass the collection basket at Mass.
She also takes a local lady shopping and to church every week.
“And I play bridge twice a week for relaxation,” Brown adds.
“I like people. I’m a people person,” she says. “I truly believe you have to give back to society.”
For more information about the Santa Cruz Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity, including volunteering and donating, phone (520) 440-7756.
A senior citizen, his wife and their daughter, who had been living in a small travel trailer, were ready to make the down payment on their brand new Habitat home
The husband set up a card table and chairs outside the cramped trailer, and his wife fanned away the flies as Brown wrote out the check for him to sign.
After joining the Santa Cruz Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity in 2000 and serving as its president since 2003, the memory still brings tears to Brown’s eyes.
Habitat, dedicated to providing affordable housing to working families in need, is proud to provide a hand up, not a handout, say Brown and the local chapter’s vice president, Wayne Pflueger.
The Santa Cruz Valley chapter, formed in 1996 as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity-Tucson, currently is building its 14th home, this one a “school-build” at Sahuarita High School that is destined for a lot in Amado’s Lakewood neighborhood.
The best part of it all for Brown is getting to know the families.
The most challenging for her? “Waking up and getting to the job site at 6 a.m. with coffee and doughnuts,” she says with a laugh.
Brown makes time to get involved with almost every aspect of Habitat of Humanity work, from helping construct the homes to, as president, setting the chapter’s direction, making committee assignments and finding good board members.
“We’ve had a good time, and seen great changes in Habitat. We’ve all grown,” say Brown and Pflueger, who has been with the chapter since 1999.
Those changes include homes that now cost about $100,000, compared to about $50,000 in 1996, Pflueger says.
However, he adds, proven benefits of homeownership include families participating in their community and children who are better behaved and do better in school.
“And the parents work hard to pay the mortgage,” Brown adds.
The local Habitat chapter currently is focused on fundraising and finding board members with networking and building skills.
At the top of its list of needs is a construction site supervisor, someone with construction experience who can read construction plans and train people.
Also, the chapter needs someone to help produce a newsletter three times a year.
Brown, 59, formerly of Philadelphia, has lived in Green Valley eight years.
She spent 23 years working for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which became Penn Central then Conrail. She started as a keypunch operator and worked her way up to manager of contracts administration before being injured in a collision in 1995 and going on disability.
According to Pflueger, Brown “works so well with our families and the board up in Tucson. And she uses her contacts to get good (Santa Cruz Valley chapter) board members. She’s connected to the community because she volunteers for everything,” he says with a smile.
Brown has volunteered for eight years with the Casa de Esperanza community center in Green Valley, serving lunch there to senior citizens three days a week.
She also, for the past two years, has spent two days a week volunteering at the Country Fair White Elephant thrift shop, “sorting shoes, pocketbooks and tidying up.”
She’s a member of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church’s Dancing Divas line dancers and Red Hat Society, and, for about six months, has been helping pass the collection basket at Mass.
She also takes a local lady shopping and to church every week.
“And I play bridge twice a week for relaxation,” Brown adds.
“I like people. I’m a people person,” she says. “I truly believe you have to give back to society.”
For more information about the Santa Cruz Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity, including volunteering and donating, phone (520) 440-7756.
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