Habitat Dedicates Flower Street House

OCEAN CITY – Habitat for Humanity Worcester County dedicated another home to a deserving family this past Saturday.

“It is part of our ongoing mission to provide decent affordable homes for deserving families in the area,” Habitat Humanity of Worcester County President Clint Houser said on Saturday.

Worcester County is a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, an ecumenical housing ministry. The Board of Directors is comprised of about 20 volunteers representing many talents and interests. Volunteer "builders" are recruited from the community at large and work side by side with board members and partner families on many aspects of the new home’s construction.

Habitat for Humanity of Worcester County was affiliated in 1994. Initial resources of $100,000 came from an anonymous donation and it’s supplemented by local fund raising efforts.

Last Saturday Houser presented Tameka Pinkney with the keys to her new home. She is a 23-year-old single mother of her young daughter, Nakiah.

“Words cannot express how I feel and how overjoyed I am in my heart to be able to have this stability,” Pinkney said.

The house is the second to be dedicated by Habitat for Humanity on Flower Street in Berlin.

“I thank all the hard working volunteers that helped me accomplish my life goal,” Pinkney said. “I’m a young single mother…it just does not happen like this. With god’s blessing and a bunch of sweat equity work, and all the blood and tears that went into this house I can’t say thank you enough.”

Mayor Gee Williams was on site to welcome Pinkney to her new home.

“I would like to officially welcome you to Berlin as our newest residents and we are very excited and very proud of you and we look for forward to a very long and happy life here,” he said.

Williams said that Habitat for Humanity serves a critical role in providing affordable housing in the community of Berlin. It also provides the community and the entire region with a great example of what volunteers can do when they all work together for a noble and important purpose.

“On behalf of the Mayor and Council and the citizens of Berlin, I want to express our sincere appreciation to everyone who is associated with Habitat for making these homes possible and making this very special day possible for Tameka and Nakiah,” he said.

Houser said that Habitat for Humanity hopes to begin building another Habitat house next door to Pinkney’s new home by summer time.

“We had a great team in place but we are always in need of additional volunteers,” he said. “So if anybody is willing to spend some time we are always happy to have you.”

Lauren Bunting, chair of the local Habitat’s fundraising, added that there are tickets available the organization’s dinner fundraiser next month. Last year the dinner raised $9,000, and this year there is a goal of $10,000. It will be held April 1 at Fager’s Island.

“We would love to have you come and participate, it is a really fun night,” she said. “The murder mystery troupe comes and performs during dinner, and we have live music and entertainment during the cocktail hour.”

To purchase tickets or for sponsorship opportunities, call Bunting at 410-422-9899 or email [email protected]