Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Marshall County, Dean Byers, told the members of the Plymouth Lions Club about the purpose of Habitat for Humanity. Their Vision is for a World where everyone has a decent place to live. Their Mission Statement is seeking to put God’s love into action. Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope. He also announced that a lot had been donated to Habitat for a new Habitat for Humanity home by John Oliver and Oliver Ford. He added it’s difficult to find buildable lots in Plymouth, and they are so grateful because this allows them to build affordable homes.
Byers also talked about the “Brush with Kindness” program. This program covers two areas for low income home owners of elderly, handicapped, and families with children. Eligibility is 50% of median income in Marshall County. This would cover routine maintenance of the property, such as yard work, minor repairs and exterior painting. They utilize volunteer groups, who spend a day doing yard work, cleaning windows, touch up painting and minor repair items. Sweat equity is a requirement for able bodied adult family members unless physically unable to help.
The Restore was also discussed by Byers, the mission of the Restore consists of three major points: They seek to supply the community with low cost home improvement materials, providing a resource for affordable building supplies, they seek to keep reusable building materials from going to the landfill, and they seek to support financially the Habitat for Humanity of Marshall County.
In other business the Plymouth Lions Club reported on the success of the Pancake and Sausage fundraiser during the Blueberry Festival and discussed how the funds would be dispersed to maintain our goals for community donations and scholarships for the coming year.
Upcoming events and fundraisers were also discussed and it was once again approved to distribute dictionaries to the third grade class students. It is estimated that 450 third graders will receive the dictionaries from the Plymouth Lions Club.
Lions Clubs International and Lions around the world will celebrate 100 years from 1917 to 2017. Past President Joe Preston kicked off the Lions Centennial Celebration in 2014 with the “Centennial Service Challenge.” Lions were challenged to serve 100 million people by December 2018 in the areas of Youth, Vision, Hunger and Environment. How are the Lions doing? As of the month of August, 99,560,015 people have been served. If you or anyone you know would like to be a part of the Plymouth Lions Club, please contact any Lions club member.
