Where Home Takes Root: REALTORS® Lend a Hand to Habitat in West Chicago

Mainstreet REALTORS® traded open houses for paintbrushes this month, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity DuPage and Chicago South Suburbs for Women Build on Oct. 14 and 15.

Women Build is Habitat's signature fundraising and volunteer event empowering women and allies to build homes, strengthen communities and create opportunities for local families through affordable homeownership. The theme for this year was: Where home takes root.

West Chicago is the place where Habitat's DuPage affiliate first started to build homes more than 30 years ago and is now building their newest affordable housing development, including 12 new townhomes. The group of volunteers included members of Mainstreet's Young Professionals Network as well as Women’s Council of REALTORS® West Suburban. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work, hand-painting a bench for the front porch of one of the new townhomes. Other volunteers stained picnic tables and built fence panels.

"It was a fantastic day for us to get together and give back to the community," said Sara Savvas, Mainstreet YPN member and designated managing broker of Parker Lane Realty. "Habitat for Humanity's mission correlates so directly with our work and it's very cool to be part of creating homes for others."

Savvas led the planning for the volunteer days. This is the second year the group volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and in addition to their days of service, the group also raised $600 in support of Habitat.

"This has become a great annual event with Habitat for Humanity and I'm already looking forward to joining them again next year and bringing even more people along," Savvas added.

In addition to Savvas, other Mainstreet REALTORS® who participated included: Nicky Richardson, CARMARC Realty Group; Lenetta DeLacy-Johnson, Suite 527 Realty Group; AirReca Weaver, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group; Angel Kimmel, Realtopia Real Estate Inc; and Michelle Seiler, Century21 Circle.