Habitat for Humanity finds new home in Franciscan Health donation

Plus, West Lafayette school board sets work session on upcoming referendum question. Stars and Stripes info. And more

Jul 03, 2023

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HABITAT FINDS NEW OFFICE HOME IN FRANCISCAN DONATION

A year after leasing administrative offices into space left by Franciscan Health, Bob Anderson said Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette’s move to the city’s north end has been better than the nonprofit homebuilder thought it might be.

“And we expected good things going in,” Anderson said.

Habitat was able to consolidate operations that had been spread between three locations, blocks away from each other in Wabash Avenue neighborhood, making things more efficient and coordinated, Anderson said. Habitat was able to put two of those spaces in houses back into homes. Habitat wound up with a space that was more visible on North 14th Street. And space gave Habitat room to grow in ways it hasn’t had in the past through the decades, Anderson said.

LSC employees worked last week on Habitat’s the House the Schools Built. (Photo: LSC)

And then, on May 31, Franciscan gave the offices to Habitat.

“Thank you obviously doesn’t say it strong enough to Franciscan for this gift,” Anderson said. “If you knew how much we actually have to interact on a daily basis, you would say, ‘How in the world did you do this before?’ Not having to bounce between offices, this has made us work together so much better than we ever have. … What a blessing.”

The gears started on the donation in summer 2021, when Sister Aline Shultz, Franciscan Health Western Indiana’s vice president of administrative services, offered Anderson a tour of space once used for the hospital’s finance offices. She said the finance team moved to the third floor of the remodeled Franciscan Health Lafayette Central building nearby.

After a year of testing things, the donation was finalized with the approval of Lafayette Bishop Timothy Doherty.

“Franciscan is always happy to apply our resources in the communities we serve, especially in the neighborhood around our Central Campus where our Sisters started their healthcare ministry in 1876,” Terry Wilson, Franciscan Health Western Indiana president and CEO, said in a release. “Habitat is a wonderful asset in this community, and many others, and a great fit with our Franciscan mission.”

Habitat also maintains facilities on South First and Williams streets, as well as the Habitat Restore on Fortune Drive.

Anderson said the donated office space comes as Habitat aims for its 40^th year in Lafayette, in 2024. He said the organization has several events planned, including a reunion of the families who helped build and owned Habitat homes in the community. He said that adds up to 335 families.

He said Habitat is looking to build between nine and 12 homes in the coming year, including ongoing work with the annual Women’s Build, the House the Schools Built and the House that Beer Built. (Anderson chalked up some of the earliest conversations about that last one to the new office space, which allowed enough parking and room to meet with owners and brewers from Greater Lafayette’s craft breweries to hatch the idea. “That’s how it all started, getting everyone in one room,” Anderson said.)

“We have so many plans and are so thankful for the support in Lafayette,” Anderson said. “And we’re so thankful for Franciscan.”

Here are photos from Lafayette School Corp. staff working last week on Habitat for Humanity’s House the Schools Built. (Photos: LSC)

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SCHOOL BOARD SETS WORK SESSION FOR WEST LAFAYETTE REFERENDUM

West Lafayette schools are expected to ask voters in a November referendum to extend a 37-cent property tax that has been overwhelmingly approved twice already, in 2010 and 2017. Ahead of that, school board members will meet Wednesday in a work session to hash out questions and strategies about the referendum, ahead of a vote scheduled July 10 to advance the referendum question.

The proposed referendum question, this one renewing for eight years rather than seven years in the first two, puts the purpose at “retaining and attracting teachers and staff and funding academic programming and operating expenditures.”

West Lafayette has had the 37-cent referendum rate in place since 2011, after voters approved it for the first time during the May 2010 primary. Voters in the May 2017 primary approved an identical rate for another seven years.

The past ballot results from those referendums:

2010: 65.5% voted yes (2,729-1,435).
2017: 94.3% voted yes (2,105-128).

For more background: “WL schools will ask voters to renew property tax referendum in November”

IF YOU GO: The West Lafayette school board work session starts at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, at the former Happy Hollow Elementary, 1200 N. Salisbury St.

ICYMI: STARS AND STRIPES LINEUP FOR THE FOURTH

The big news for this year’s Stars and Stripes Celebration in downtown Lafayette? The fireworks will be launched from the deck of the Harrison Bridge, a few blocks north of downtown, instead of from city land nearby the way it was last year.

Lafayette City Clerk Cindy Murray, organizer of the annual Stars and Stripes, said the position of work on West Lafayette’s major combined sewer overflow along North River Road made Harrison Bridge off limits in 2022.

“We’re excited to have it back,” Murray said. “We had a nice display last year. But it was harder to see when they had to shoot things off where they did. It should be back to what it was, up on the bridge.”

Not happening this year: A Fourth of July parade. The city held one in 2022, but Murray said there wasn’t enough interest to be in the parade this year to hold it, again.

Here’s the schedule for Stars and Stripes at Riehle Plaza, near Second and Main streets in downtown Lafayette.

5 p.m.: Food truck vendors will open for business.
6 p.m.: Lafayette Jeff Jazz Combo and Alumni Band
7 p.m.: Clave Caribe
8 p.m.: Lafayette Citizens Band and the Freedom Singers
9 p.m.: Tippecanoe Ancient Fife and Drum Corps
9:10 p.m.: Lafayette Citizens Band and Freedom Singers
10 p.m.: Fireworks

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The St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday had the family of Terry Badger III, a 13-year-old from Covington, to Busch Stadium for a ceremony to raise awareness about suicide and bullying.

For background, Indianapolis Star reporter Dana Hunsinger Benbow was there, recapping the story from this spring on Terry Badger III and how his family has worked to spread the word about bullying and encouraging people to get help in times of crisis.

Thanks, again, for sponsorship help today from MatchBOX Coworking Studio, presenting its Sixth & South Annual Fundraiser on July 15. For details and ticket, go to: mbx.studio/sixthsouth

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