Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex is celebrating three decades of building homes, communities, and hope this weekend.
A 30th Anniversary Celebration is taking place on Saturday at the Habitat ReStore, located at 51 Edinborough Street, which is dedicated to honouring the community, volunteers, staff, families, and ReStore shoppers.
Habitat's mission is to mobilize volunteers and community partners in building affordable housing and promoting home ownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Officials are getting ready to begin construction on their 86th and 87th homes built in Windsor-Essex, and this landmark anniversary celebrates all that has been accomplished.
Director of community outreach Hope Lovell says you don't get to 30 years as a non-profit doing what they do without a community that's very supportive.
She says they've planned a really fun day for everyone.
"With a makers market for local artisans, you'll see some upcycling of things that people have taken from the ReStore and now have created even better things with them. So we have 21 vendors coming out for that, but we also have just a number of fun fair and carnival style games for whole families to participate in," she said.
Lovell says it's important to have the event at the ReStore because it's in many ways the unsung hero of the build program.
"The reason we build homes essentially is that this ReStore helps us raise so much money to do so. The reason we raise money is because we have a community of volunteers that support that effort, we have donors who are donating their kitchens that are ready to renovate, or appliances working or not. All of the items that we're selling are coming from this community and being purchased by this community."
On top of the celebration, she says there will also be once-a-year opportunities for discounts at the ReStore with lots of volunteers on hand to help out.
"We have regulars who are in here constantly just checking to see what's going on, so it does have a bit of a family atmosphere. Which of course is supported by the idea we have volunteers who are here because they want to be here, which certainly makes it a much more elevated retail experience when everybody serving you chose to do it," Lovell said.
Lovell says everyone is welcome to attend this event, and organizers are hoping to see lots of people.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.