App Builds a Home is a partnership between Appalachian State University and Watauga County Habitat for Humanity to help local partner families build safe, affordable homes. In the App State tradition of community partnerships, this home build is a tangible commitment to our community and an opportunity for a campus-wide project to bring together students, faculty, staff, and alumni to help build a home for a local family.
Our first annual Walls Up Build Week was a wild success! Thank you to volunteer teams from the Geography and Planning department, the Office of Sustainability, Orientation, the Wesley Foundation, Advising, and Student Affairs for helping to build the walls to Sheila's home!
We are excited to share that App Builds a Home has been awarded the 2021 Community Impact Award! This award recognizes a club that has contributed time, support, or money on a local level to better the Boone community.
Kayla McDougle, one of the ABAH co-directors, was also awarded the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award. This prestigious award is designed to recognize an outstanding member within an organization for all of their individual hard work. This award is presented to a student that, through their achievements, makes a valuable contribution and lasting impact on the Appalachian State University campus and/or surrounding community.
All of us on the ABAH advisory board are thankful for the opportunity to serve the local community and are proud to be recognized by App State's Office of Campus Activities and Club Council!
For year two, App Builds a Home is building a home for one of our own, App State employee and lifelong resident of the High Country, Sheila Potter. Sheila’s home site has been in her immediate family for over 50 years.
It means the world to Sheila to build on her own land. “I can still be close to my mom, but the privacy and independence of having my own home is such a blessing.” Sheila is most excited about having her own bathroom and having a place for her grandson to come spend the night.
Sheila has been an Appalachian State University employee since 2016. Prior to that, she worked at Hospitality Mints and Mabel Elementary School.
ABAH officially broke ground on the Potter home this October. To watch the groundbreaking video, check out the "Potter Home" tab at the top of this page!
We officially broke ground on the Potter Home last week! Jim, Mackenzie, Betsy, and Alex met with Sheila and her grandson to celebrate the ground-breaking. We are still awaiting a few official permits, but construction will hopefully begin in November! Sheila's grandson is super excited to have a room in his "Meemaw's" house and to help her sweep the new house!
In this time of crisis and shelter-in-place guidelines, a safe home is more important now than ever. App Builds a Home is honored to help local families build affordable and safe homes.
Barker home: Home completion is scheduled for mid-May with a Virtual Home Dedication on May 30th. Everyone is invited to join that celebration as the Barkers move into their new home! Check the ABAH website soon for details about the virtual event.
Potter home: We will begin the 2nd ABAH house for Sheila Potter, an Appalachian State University employee, in the fall of 2020. We will kick off the Potter home build with a Blitz Build this coming September.
App Builds a Home wants to thank everyone from this university and the community for their continued support during these difficult times. We encourage you to stay involved, find out how at appbuildsahome.appstate.edu.
Great news! The App Builds a Home project has been renewed for a second year! In the Fall of 2020, we will begin construction on a second ABAH home, but for now we need your help! Though construction won't begin for several months, we must begin planning and fundraising now.
We have formed an advisory board of over 30 ASU students, faculty members, and alumni to plan and execute the building of this home. The advisory board consists of three committees: fundraising, marketing, and outreach. Descriptions and current members of each of these committees can be found under the "Potter Home" tab at the top of this page. If you are interested in joining the advisory board, please reach out to any committee chair or email appbuildsahome@appstate.edu.
Fundraising also starts now! If your group or organization is interested in hosting a fundraiser, you will find more information under the "Get Involved" tab at the top of this page. Direct donations can also be made here.
Thank you for your investment in the App Builds a Home project and we look forward to building a home alongside YOU!
The weekend of September 21st and 22nd, over 200 volunteers joined together to pull off a construction miracle. Various members of the Appalachian State community put their blood, sweat, and tears into the framing, sheathing, and siding of the App Builds a Home house. Beginning at 8am Saturday morning with only a foundation, these volunteers worked tirelessly so that by shortly after 6pm Sunday evening we were left with a fully framed and partially sided house. Work that typically would take around 4 months to complete was finished in just over 20 hours thanks to the dedication of the community. Joined by a team of approximately 50 "Crazies" - a group of Habitat volunteers who travel up and down the East Coast helping Habitat affiliates complete blitz builds like this one - workers were able to put up exterior and interior walls (including those on a second floor), install windows and doors, put up siding, and complete both the front and side porch of the home. Working alongside the family - the Barkers - it was a weekend we won't soon forget. Thank you to everyone who came out to help with the construction, and thank you to everyone who has supported App Builds a Home to date! We wouldn't have gotten this far without every single one of you. Together we are making a difference and helping a family achieve decent, affordable housing!
The weekend of September 21st and 22nd, construction on the first ever Appalachian State Habitat House will officially kick off. This won't be a normal day on the build site, however. That's because a group called the Habitat Road Trip Crazies are coming to town to help us perform a feat of what some might consider a construction miracle. That's right, we will be attempting to build the entire frame of the App State Habitat House in just 48 hours. This means we should have all of the walls up as well as the roof, without all of the exterior finishes like siding or shingles. To some that might sound impossible, but to the Habitat Crazies, it's just another day on the job. The Habitat Crazies consist of a group of volunteers located mainly out of Lynchburg, Virginia who travel around the country to perform these "blitz builds" with different Habitat for Humanity affiliates. Over the course of that weekend of September 21st-22nd, 50 Crazies and over 100 Appalachian State volunteers will pull off this "crazy" weekend. With the help of the Habitat Crazies, the overall timeline of the build of this house should be shortened tremendously. A typical Habitat house in Watauga County takes around one year to complete, but, thanks to the Crazies blitz build weekend, this house could be completed in just four short months. If you are eager to be a part of this blitz build weekend, you can sign-up to volunteer by clicking here.
You might recognize the faces of David and Amy Barker if you are working on the build site of the App Builds a Home project. That's because the Barkers, along with their two children Nathan and Kali, have been chosen as the homeowners of this Habitat house. Amy and David will be working tirelessly alongside all of the volunteers from start to finish to complete the work on their new home. We are so excited to welcome the Barkers to the Habitat for Humanity family!
*In-kind donations are also welcomed! Email us at appbuildsahome@appstate.edu for more info!
