Crews worked Tuesday to finish roofs, install and mud drywall, caulk window frames and begin painting.click to enlarge Sumter County Fact: Aviator Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight took place at Sumter County's Souther Field airport. 
More about the 1999 Easter Morning Build: Return to Tuesday's 1999 EMB Report Sixpence None the Richer Enriched by Serving 1999 EMB Homeowners JCWP 2000 Leaders 'Spy' on Local Blitz More Updates: Monday | Wednesday Thursday | Friday 1998 Easter Morning Build |
So Far So Good: Blitz Right On Schedule
AMERICUS, Georgia (March 30, 1999) -- The Easter Morning Community's skyline now features a couple dozen more rooftops.
More than 1,000 volunteers from throughout the world and scores of Habitat for Humanity headquarters personnel worked feverishly in gorgeous weather Monday to get the tops on 25 simple, decent homes under construction this week in the northern Americus neighborhood.
A three-in-10 chance of showers today is unlikely to slow progress during the weeklong blitz build, since many workers will be toiling inside homes putting up drywall. A prolonged shower could delay siding work, but Easter Morning Build 2 construction manager Johnny Roberts isn't worried.
"Even if it rains, it won't hurt us too bad," Roberts said. "We've got the worst of it behind us."
If work continues at its current pace, the 25 families set to move into the homes should have no trouble waking up in their new bedrooms for the first time Easter Sunday, April 4.
"Everybody's right on schedule," said Desi Wynter, executive director of the Americus-Sumter County Habitat for Humanity affiliate. "We've got some flex time built in for Friday and Saturday if we get behind, but it looks like it's going to be no problem for [all the homeowners] to be in their homes on Easter morning."
A few houses in the blitz build have gone up faster than you can say "habitation."
The framing on House No. 8, for example, was finished before many volunteers assigned to the house could learn what a wall stud is. That's because the house's sponsor, John Wieland Homes, sent a team of professional framers to do the heavy work.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Nathan Pool, a 40-year old maintenance worker who will move into the home with his wife and six children.
Easter Morning Build 2 brings Habitat for Humanity and its local affiliate, Americus-Sumter County HFH, a giant step closer to wiping out poverty housing in this Southwest Georgia county. In 18 months, the organizations' joint Sumter County Initiative aims to have provide adequate shelter for every family in the county who wants it.
The Sumter County Initiative may make the Americus area the first community in the nation to reach that goal. But it's not likely to be the last. More than 30 other communities around the nation are embracing what Habitat for Humanity calls the 21st Century Challenge, the challenge to eradicate poverty housing by a predetermined year.
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