The Auction was a huge success! With your support we raised over $102,000 to help families here in our community. We’re so grateful for your help! The evening featured live music, a fast-paced silent auction, incredible unique live auction items, good food, and even better friends!

If you weren’t able to make it, but still want to be part of our “Raise the Roof” pledge period, you can click here to donate! Thank you for your generosity.

Join our Dream! Watch the video we premiered at our event: Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley: Building Hope! We were featured in the paper! Read Friday’s article on annarbor.com: “Habitat For Humanity expands to help homeowners with house repair” Read the annarbor.com article about Habitat’s growing dream! Thank you to everyone who made this year’s event possible. We couldn’t have done it without Event Sponsors, Table Sponsors, In-Kind Donors who provided food, equipment, printing, design, and our video, over 50 volunteers, and of course, generous attendees who bid on auction items, played in our raffles and donated to help more families. Thank you!!!

Sponsor Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley’s Annual Auction!

We’re excited to partner with you and your company! Your sponsorship will support an event that:

• Changes families’ lives, right here in Washtenaw County
• Is an incredible amount of fun, with good food and great live music
• Attracts over 400 community leaders
• Is well-respected and recognized in the community
• Will align your business with Habitat for Humanity, one of America’s most recognized brands!

Our goal is to raise $120,000 during this evening. This will help renovate 15 previously foreclosed houses for 15 families in 2012 – more than any year before this! Your support will help us accomplish this goal!

Sponsorship Levels

Builder • $5,000

• 2 Reserved Tables (8 people each) at the event featuring your name and logo (where applicable)
• Recognition in Press Releases
• 1 Reserved TeamHabitat Build day
• Recognition in the event program and signage
• Recognition in the HHHV newsletter and website, featuring a logo exchange with live links
• Recognition in the May Ann Arbor Observer

Contractor • $2,500

• 1 Reserved Tables (8 people) at the event featuring your name and logo (where applicable)
• Recognition in the event program and signage
• Recognition in the HHHV newsletter and website, featuring a logo exchange with live links
• Recognition in the May Ann Arbor Observer

Journeyman • $1,000

• 4 tickets to the event
• Recognition in the event program and signage
• Recognition in the HHHV newsletter and website
• Recognition in the May Ann Arbor Observer

Apprentice • $500

• 2 tickets to the event
• Recognition in the event program and signage
• Recognition on the HHHV website
• Recognition in the May Ann Arbor Observer

Benefits of Partnering with Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley

Brand Recognition:  Habitat for Humanity is a valuable nationally and internationally recognized brand that your company will be proud to be aligned with. In fact, Habitat for Humanity has been featured in America’s Greatest Brands, stating we’re one of the strongest and most trusted brands in the country. Supporting our work will promote your brand and business.

Wide Community Exposure:  Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley works with businesses, churches, organizations and families from within Washtenaw County. Your support will stay in your own backyard. We regularly are featured in local publications including the Ann Arbor Observer and AnnArbor.com

Local Focus:  Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley is locally focused. We seek to utilize as many resources from the community as possible. We are proud to do business with and promote our neighbors.

Impact on the Foreclosure Crisis:  Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley is making a difference in our community. We partner with other local organizations, businesses, individuals and congregations to turn the tide on the foreclosure crisis. We renovate homes up to an Energy Star standard and sell them with a zero percent interest mortgage to hardworking families.

Life-Changing Mission – A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out:  Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley provides affordable home-ownership opportunities to local families. Families have to earn their home, first investing 300 hours of volunteer work, “sweat-equity,” before purchasing their home with a $500 down payment and with a zero-percent interest mortgage.

All 2012 Annual Auction Sponsors will receive:

• Recognition in our e-marketing newsletter: We will include your logo with a live-link directly to your website from all of our e-communication about the event. Our e-marketing is emailed to over 7,000 contacts.
• Recognition in our printed newsletter: We will thank you in the fall-edition of our printed newsletter. Our donor database is over 8,000 individuals, businesses, churches and civic groups.
• Recognition on our website: We will include your logo with a live-link from our auction webpage. Our website has approximately 2,500 unique visitors every month.
• Recognition in the Auction Program Book: Your logo will be in the booklet distributed to over 400 community leaders at the auction.
• Recognition on displays at the auction: Your logo will be printed and prominently displayed at the auction.
• Recognition in the May Issue of Ann Arbor Observer: Your company will be thanked in an ad published in the Ann Arbor Observer, which is distributed to every household in Ann Arbor, and available in many local venues across the city.

Sign up to be a sponsor today by:

• Fill out the Remit Sheet and mail it with your check to Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley, 170 Aprill Drive, Suite A, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.  Please make checks payable to Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley.
• Registering online and making your payment with a credit card at www.h4h.org/support-habitat/2012auction.
• Contacting Latanyta Manuel today at 734.677.1558 ext 121 or lmanuel@h4h.org.

For information about attending or donating items to the auction, click here!

We are currently accepting applications for our homeownership program! Read through our “Own A Home” section to learn more about the qualifications and process.

If you are interested in becoming a Habitat homeowner, please call our office at 734-677-1558, ext. 106 to register for one of our upcoming orientations.

Click here to fill out our Intake Form – the first step toward owning a home!

This year, Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley achieved Energy Star 5 Ratings on all our rehabilitated homes! Read what AnnArbor.com had to say about it here.

In addition, through the DTE pilot program, we submitted and were approved for 22 of the 32 homes submitted by the three affiliates to DTE. Our results were outstanding showing an 80% reduction in natural gas when our completed homes were compared to their pre-renovation condition. This will position us well to continue and expand the pilot in 2012.

Your gift right now will have double the impact on hard-working families, like Amber and Ayla. Help us make a difference.

Your gift matched = TWICE the impact.

Your gift will have twice the impact on affordable home-ownership opportunities. With this match, your gift will help renovate twice the number of foreclosures. And twice the number of hard-working families from Washtenaw County, like the Amber and Kayla, will have the opportunity to own a safe, decent and affordable home.

Habitat is the only nonprofit organization providing home-ownership opportunities for very low-income families in Washtenaw County.

Please, give now and double your impact.

What could be a more meaningful way to celebrate this holiday season of hope than by changing the life of a family forever.

Thank you so much for your generosity. It truly changes lives.

Sarah Stanton

Executive Director

P.S. This match only lasts until Christmas Eve … we need you now!

Habitat Homeowners are hard-working families from our community who can’t afford to buy a home with a traditional mortgage. Owning a home is so important to a family’s life. Living in a stable home helps kids succeed in school and gives parents achieve a sense of dignity and pride. But our program does more: every home we’ve renovated in the past three years was a foreclosed property. With your help, Habitat is revitalizing neighborhoods, and reenergizing the entire community. You can be part of this great mission by Giving the Gift of Home this Holiday Season.

Your gift will support Habitat’s mission of helping families in our community achieve home-ownership. Learn more about our home-ownership program.

These beautiful Habitat Holiday Cards feature the work of local artist Kim Rhoney, and feature the following message:

Dear Name,

In celebration of the holiday season, I have made a gift to Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley in your name!

This gift will help a local family in need purchase a safe, decent, and affordable home, and support neighborhood revitalization throughout the community. This gift will make  areal impact in families’ lives and will keep giving for generations to come!

Best Wishes,

___________

For a minimum of $10 donation, we will send a Personalized Habitat Holiday Card through one of the following three options:

1. We will email the gift recipient an e-card

2. We will mail the gift recipient a printed holiday card

3. We will mail you a card so you can hand deliver it to your loved one!

Click the button above to Give the Gift of Home!

The artwork for these gorgeous cards was painted by a local Ann Arbor artist Kim Rhoney, exclusively for Habitat.

When I walk into Natalya’s home, I feel at peace. Her home is calm, painted shades of blue. When she shared her story with me, I was amazed that a woman who had experienced so much pain could now exude so much peace. “Sometimes,” she told me, “I sit in the hallway and just think, I am living my dream.”

Natalya moved to Michigan from Kazakhstan in 1999 with her husband. They had two daughters, but their marriage soon crumbled. She lost her house and car, ending up homeless. Natalya strung together a series of part-time jobs, went back to school, and eventually was able to rent a small apartment. Her mother came from Russia to watch the girls so that Natalya could work as many hours as she could get, while attending U of M for her Bachelors in Nursing.

For years, Natalya and her family simply survived. But then Natalya learned about Habitat.

Everything has changed since Natalya purchased her home through Habitat. Her daughters’ faces light up as they talk about the colors they’ve painted their rooms, and the decorations they can have in their home. They talk about how they frequently set up a tent in their backyard, transforming it into a magical kingdom where they are proud to have their friends. Natalya laughs as she tells me her youngest daughter even absorbed the concepts from the financial management classes she took through Habitat, telling her mother she didn’t want to buy something because, “It wasn’t on sale.” Natalya’s mother recently reached a milestone, passing the U.S. Citizenship Test this fall and renting an apartment of her own.

Natalya told me that owning her own house has allowed her to be creative. She centers herself every morning by sitting outside on her porch swing, sipping a steaming cup of coffee before she heads to work at Residential Home Health, where she provides home health care. It’s such a contrast to the overwhelming fight to survive that was her life.

At Habitat for Humanity we are committed to changing lives. We aren’t just providing families the opportunity to own a home, we are working with them to transform their future and their children’s future.

There are so many families, like Natalya and her daughters, who long for a place to be creative. A home where they can paint the walls, or adopt a pet. A place where their kids know their neighbors and attend the same school every year. Without Habitat, working parents like Natalya may never be able to afford a home, on their salary, with a traditional mortgage. But through Habitat’s 0% interest mortgage and sweat equity down payment, they too can invest in their future and own a home.

We are relying on your generosity. There continues to be a strong opportunity for Habitat to purchase and renovate foreclosed houses, now sitting vacant and abandoned. We are clustering our purchases so that they can attract additional investment to otherwise declining neighborhoods. Will you join me in helping families like Natalya by giving this holiday season? Give online today.

Every dollar makes a difference in a life and in our community.

Thank you for your partnership!

Sarah Stanton

Executive Director

P.S. This year we’re completing the 117^th home for a family here in Washtenaw County. We need your help now, more than ever.

Come One Come All! You are cordially invited to our JCI-sponsored Open House! This Tuesday, November 22 at 6pm! Join us to witness the near-completion of a Habitat home, and celebrate with the incredible JCI sponsors and employee volunteers! Proud homeowner Carol Hare and her daughter, Laila, are thrilled to show you their beautiful Habitat home.