Skip to content

Habitat for Humanity celebrates with ribbon cutting at expanded ReStore

New steel Quonset hut to store more housing supplies
web1_161021-RDA--Habitat-for-Humanity-for-web

Shopping for windows in the winter at Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore just got a whole lot warmer.

The ReStore opened its new cold storage facility on Friday with stock inside donated by All Weather Windows and office equipment from Nova Chemicals.

“This is our second expansion now in the last two years. The building we’re putting outside today will enable us to protect against Old Man Winter, the windows and things we’ve been storing outdoors for the last number of years,” said Brian Brake, executive director of Habitat For Humanity Red Deer Region.

He estimated that $10,000 to $15,000 worth of items stored outside were destroyed last year from the weather.

Habitat received a $52,000 grant to buy the steel Quonset hut through the Community Initiatives program with funding from the Alberta Lottery Fund.

Brake said Red Deer-North MLA Kim Schreiner was instrumental in helping Habitat with the grant process. And local companies like Red Deer Overdoor, Eecol Electric Corporation, Triple A Electric Ltd. and Burnco Rock Products Ltd. were happy to donate their expertise, service and products to the project.

“This is a community organization. There was nobody that I called that turned me down.”

Money raised through the sale of new and gently used building materials donated to the ReStore pays for the store’s small staff and the construction of Habitat homes in Central Alberta.

“We’re trying to create 10 new homes for Habitat families every year.”

Two years ago the goal was one to two homes but Habitat has reached out to more communities and is creating new partnerships, he said.

In June, Habitat finished two duplexes in Lacombe for four families.

Habitat is looking at building homes in Red Deer, Stettler and Innisfail in the future.

He said ReStore sees about $2,800 in sales each day.

“This past 12 months we netted $370,000.”

The new cold storage facility will help keep funds flowing at the ReStore, he said.

“We have a loyal following here that come in every morning. People who do odd jobs around town, they come in, they buy their nails, their screws. They’re looking for doors, windows, flooring.”

And an estimated 500 tons of building material was diverted from the landfill in the past 12 months, he said.

“It’s wonderful way to recycle things.”

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com