HoCo Habitat for Humanity hosts 22nd annual golf tournament

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — There’s not time quite like tee time. This Friday, Houston County’s Habitat for Humanity group offered two of them in their 22nd annual golf tournament, where they played a four-man scramble and raised funds to better the community.

“We have 32 teams, and they range everything from businesses to individuals and organizations,” Habitat Development Director Jim Taylor said. “It’s always been a well tended event, and a lot of people like to support Habitat — this is another way to support that.”

With a tee time at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., the teams gathered together on the green at Southern Landing Golf Club and played a friendly game, helping their community to thrive in the process.

Parrish Construction acted as the event’s presenting sponsor, having made the largest donation to the cause, but several groups came together to show their support, either by providing a monetary donation, sponsoring a team to play, or giving the non-profit items to raffle off. Many of the sponsors, including Southern Lighting, Home Depot and Griffin Lumber, no only assisted with this event, but also regularly support Habitat in their building or repair projects.

Last year’s fundraiser collected $40,000 — Habitat for Humanity hopes to do the same this year. Proceeds go towards Habitat’s general fund.

“We use it how we need it,” Taylor explained. “Money goes towards repairs, we’ve done some nice repairs [and plan to] keep doing some nice repairs. It helps us out with the home builds, and it helps us out with expenses we incur through our ReStore.

“We don’t have a designated particular thing, it just goes in the general fund, and it helps us do our mission bigger and broader.”

The event does not, however, serve solely as a fundraising event. The goal is to reach out to the community and interact with their partners.

“You work together and you play together; a lot of the times you’re more productive, it can’t be all work and no play,” Taylor explained. “We do stuff like the golf tournament, like the women’s build, like the veteran’s build, to let the community what all Habitat is doing in the community, for the community.”

Houston County’s Habitat for Humanity works to provide housing to those in need in a way that allows them to gain new housing with effort and dignity. As Taylor puts it, the group is providing a “hand up, not a hand out,” — those who fulfill the necessary paperwork and are eventually chosen by Habitat’s selection board are asked to serve a number of community service hours, take classes and put in their own “sweat equity” by assisting to construct their home. For more information on Houston County, you can visit their website at www.hocohabitat.org, or by visiting their Facebook page, “Houston County Habitat for Humanity.”

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