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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF UTAH COUNTY

March 2016

HABITAT TO BREAK GROUND ON FIRST HABITAT HOME IN AMERICAN FORK

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County will be breaking ground on its first ever Habitat home in American Fork on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. The home is being built at 332 East 580 South with the Gundersen family. All interested community members are invited to attend.

GET “REVVVED UP” FOR HABITAT! GAIL MILLER TO SPEAK AT ANNUAL FUNDRAISING

BREAKFAST

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County will be holding its Sixth Annual Fundraising Breakfast on Thursday, March 8, 2016, at 8:00 a.m. at the Riverside Country Club in Provo. Gail Miller, owner of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, will be speaking at the breakfast event. The free event, sponsored by Ban-ner Bank, will provide the local Habitat affiliate an opportunity to showcase its programs while raising much needed funding for the organization's affordable housing mission. All interested community mem-bers are invited to attend. RSVP to info@habitatuc.org or (801) 344-8527.

HABITAT TO RECOGNIZE COMMUNITY PARTNER AND VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION DINNER

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County will be holding its tenth annual volunteer and community supporter recognition event on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at 6:00 p.m. at Castle Park in Lindon. The silver themed event, sponsored by Americas Barter Exchange and its members, will include a delicious dinner, piano music, and fun favors. Business partners, supporters, and community volunteers will be honored for their outstanding service efforts with the local Habitat affiliate over the past year. In celebration of Habitat’s 25th birthday, the affiliate will also be honoring some long time volunteers and supporters with some special “silver” awards.

HABITAT TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS YEAR’S LOVE GIVE UTAH DONATION CAMPAIGN

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County will be participating in this year’s Love Give Utah on March 31, 2016. The statewide giving and awareness campaign encourages individuals and companies to donate to their favorite charity or charities during the one day event. Habitat supporters can donate at https://loveutgiveut.razoo.com/us/story/Utah-County-Habitat-For-Humanity-Of. Donations will help sup-port the Gundersen Habitat home in American Fork.

HABITAT SELECTS NEW FAMILIES FOR HOMEOWNERSHIP PROGRAM

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County has selected six new families for the affiliate’s homeownership pro-gram – the Munoz, Acosta, Black, Harter, Morgan, and Sanabria families. We would like to welcome them to our program and look forward to working with them over the next couple of years as we work on building or renovating safe and affordable homes with them.

• Time is running out! We still need community members to join our Circle of 100 and help us build our first full Women Build home with a widow and her two children this spring in Provo. Details at www.habitatuc.org/circleOf100.htm.

• Paint Your Heart Out! The Habitat ReStores in Orem and Spanish Fork have quality, recycled paint and paint tools for great prices! Stop by and refresh your home today! Locations and hours at www.habitatuc.org/restore.htm.

• Habitat is celebrating its 25th Birthday in 2016! To celebrate this milestone event, the Utah Valley Habitat ReStores will be holding a 25 percent off sale on the 25th day of each month (when open)! They will also be offering bags of peppermint taffy for only .25! The next sale will be Friday March 25th.

• Donate your car, running or not, to Habitat and change lives in your community. Pick-up is free! Details at www.habitatuc.org/cars-for-homes.htm.

• Get your taxes done and help a family in need! H&R Block is giving Habitat $20.00 for every new client referral. Call a local H&R Block office today and make an appointment! Be sure to give them the code #40010001082865! Thank you!

• Utah County residents with household hazardous waste items such as old gasoline, paint, fluorescent light bulbs, and unused medications will be offered to dispose of these items safely at a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on Saturday, April 9th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The collection will take place in the west parking lot of the Provo Towne Centre Mall. Habitat will be collecting all useable paint for its paint recycling program.

• Go grocery shopping and help provide safe and affordable housing for families in need in our community! Sign up for Smith’s Community Rewards Program at www.smithscommunityrewards.com, link your ac-count/card with Habitat for Humanity of Utah County (#48773) and then go shopping at your local Smith’s Grocery Store. Smith’s will then provide a financial contribution to the local Habitat affiliate.

• Check out Habitat’s FUNSAVER Site! Habitat for Humanity has partnered with VP Deals to get all the lat-est bargains on local products/venues. Check out this week’s FUNSAVER specials at www.habitatucdeals.info. A portion of your “fun” purchases will help Habitat further its housing mission in the community.

• Test your home for radon today! Test kits are available at the Habitat ReStores in Orem and Spanish Fork for only $6.00 (includes lab fee). More information about radon, look online at www.habitatuc.org/radon.htm.

PHOTO GALLERY

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Habitat Promotes Programs at Utah Valley Home and Garden Show- Habitat for Humanity of Utah County had a booth at this past weekend’s Utah Valley Home and Garden Show at UVU. Habitat staff members and volun-teers shared information about the ReStores and Habitat’s other programs, gave out peppermint taffy, and held a prize giveaway for those in attendance.

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PHOTO GALLERY

PROVO MAYOR HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE AND RETESTS HOME TO PROMOTE RADON AWARENESS!- In partnership with Habitat and the Utah County Health Department, Provo Mayor John Curtis held a press conference on Thursday, February 4th at his home in North Provo to discuss the deadly effects of radon gas. Mayor Curtis and Andrea Jensen, an Environmental Health Edu-cator with the Health Department, talked about radon, its effects, and the importance of testing your home. Mayor Curtis then unveiled his own radon test results. Last year, Mayor Curtis installed a mitigation system at his home after his radon test results came back high. After mitigation, his home has dropped 12 points and is now within the EPA’s recommended level for the natural occurring gas.

OREM FAIRFIELD INN HITS “A HOLE IN ONE” FOR HABITAT AT ITS GRAND OPENING - The new Fairfield Inn and Suites in Orem raised over $2,000 for Habitat for Humanity at its grand opening this past week. The hotel held a mini golf course throughout the hotel to highlight its amenities and Habitat’s programs and raise money for the Gunder-sen Habitat home in American Fork.

Home Maintenance Classes

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For more information, look online at www.habitatuc.org or contact LeAnn at (801) 368-2250 or leann@habitatuc.org. You can also sign up online at www.habitatuc.org/volunteer.htm.

VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT TO SERVE ON

COMMITTEES

Volunteers are needed to serve on all of Habitat’s lo-cal committees. Monthly or quarterly meetings, limited time commitment, no experience necessary, varying interests and skills needed. For more information, contact LeAnn Hillam at (801) 368-2250 or leann@habitatuc.org.

Home Maintenance Tips

Volunteer Opportunities

CREW LEADERS AND SITE HOSTS NEEDED TO

HELP GUIDE CONSTRUCTION

Volunteers with construction experience or those want-ing to improve their construction skills are being sought to participate in the affiliate's Crew Leader and Site Host Programs. Orientations are monthly. The next orientation will be on at the Habitat office in Orem on March 12, 2016. For information, contact LeAnn at the number or email below.

Check out Habitat & Community Action’s Free Home Maintenance Course. The next class will be Thursday, March 31, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. The topics are: Landscaping, Lawn Care, and Sprinkler System Maintenance. Classes begin at 6:30 p.m. and are held at the Habitat office at 340 South Orem Blvd., Orem.

At HOME DEPOT – Registration is necessary. Call store or register online. Look online for the March clinic schedules at www.homedepot.com.

At LOWE'S - you must sign up for How-To Clinics by calling 229-1485 or stopping by their store at 140 West Uni-versity Parkway in Orem. Look online for March clinic schedules at www.lowes.com.

(www.hgtv.com)

10 Home Maintenance Tips for Spring

After a long, dark winter, spring's bright sun and warm winds are, well, a breath of fresh air. The only downside? All that sunshine spotlights your leaf-filled gutters, cracked sidewalks and the dead plants in last year's flower beds. Dwight Barnett, a certified master inspector with the American Society of Home Inspectors, shared this checklist to help you target the areas that need maintenance so you can get your chores done quickly, leaving you time to go outside and play in the sunshine.

• Check for loose or leaky gutters. Improper drainage can lead to water in the basement or crawl space. Make sure downspouts drain away from the foundation and are clear and free of debris.

• Low areas in the yard or next to the foundation should be filled with compacted soil. Spring rains can cause yard flooding, which can lead to foundation flooding and damage. Also, when water pools in these low areas in summer, it creates a breeding ground for insects.

• Use a screwdriver to probe the wood trim around windows, doors, railings and decks. Make repairs now be-fore the spring rains do more damage to the exposed wood.

• From the ground, examine roof shingles to see if any were lost or damaged during winter. If your home has an older roof covering, you may want to start a budget for replacement. The summer sun can really damage roof shingles. Shingles that are cracked, buckled or loose or are missing granules need to be replaced. Flash-ing around plumbing vents, skylights and chimneys need to be checked and repaired by a qualified roofer.

• Examine the exterior of the chimney for signs of damage. Have the flue cleaned and inspected by a certified chimney sweep.

• Inspect concrete slabs for signs of cracks or movement. All exterior slabs except pool decks should drain away from the home's foundation. Fill cracks with a concrete crack filler or silicone caulk. When weather per-mits, power-wash and then seal the concrete.

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• Remove firewood stored near the home. Firewood should be stored at least 18 inches off the ground at least 2 feet from the structure.

• Check outside hose faucets for freeze damage. Turn the water on and place your thumb or finger over the opening. If you can stop the flow of water, it is likely the pipe inside the home is damaged and will need to be replaced. While you're at it, check the garden hose for dry rot.

• Have a qualified heating and cooling contractor clean and service the outside unit of the air conditioning sys-tem. Clean coils operate more efficiently, and an annual service call will keep the system working at peak performance levels. Change interior filters on a regular basis.

• Check your gas- and battery-powered lawn equipment to make sure it is ready for summer use. Clean equip-ment and sharp cutting blades will make yardwork easier.

Health and Nutrition Tips for March

Entering March, it’s time to get ready for spring. As sunlight and days become longer, it gives good reason to start going outdoors more. Start moving your exercise routines outside, especially if you have kept them up since the New Year. Enjoy the warmer weather and get as much sunlight as possible to keep your body in balance.

Light Outdoor Exercise Tips for Healthy Spring Lifestyle

Some easy exercises that Princess Lifestyle recommends for healthy lifestyle is to go for a walk, a quick jog or to ride a bike. These activities are great for healthy body functions. Walking after a meal is best for better digestive support. Walking can also be therapeutic to help clear your mind. A quick jog or riding a bike around the neighborhood will help your circulatory system to keep the blood flowing and heart active. Keeping your cardio-vascular activities constant is important to overall health and general well-being.

Add Whole Grains Health Tip for Optimal Nutrition

Start including more whole grains in your diet such as oats, millet, barley, brown rice and quinoa. Whole grains can be eaten for breakfast along with fruits and nuts for a complete and healthy breakfast meal. Adding healthy foods to your diet will provide you with more energy. This extra energy keeps you working as spring gives ample opportunities to exercise. out-doors. Combining more outdoor exercises with whole grains to your diet, you’ll be much happier, focused and healthier.

RESOURCES

Community Action Services offers Home Buyer Education Classes on a monthly basis. Classes in February will be held March 2nd and March 3rd from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and March 19th at 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. To register, please call (801) 691-5200 or go online to www.communityactionuc.org.

People Helping People’s Employment Program can help you reach your full potential at work and in life! The free program is currently accepting new clients. Call (801) 437-4415 or stop by any Wednesday night at 6pm at 748 North 1340 West, Orem (Boy Scouts Building 3rd Floor).

Habitat families who are struggling to put food on the table can contact Kena at the Habitat office. She can pro-vide emergency food vouchers for families to receive short term food boxes from Community Action. Call her at (801) 344-8527 x 103 for further details.

The HEAT program assists eligible individuals and families meet the higher costs of energy during the winter months. Eligible families and residents of Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties can apply for one-time assis-tance. Target groups for the program include low-income families with children five and under, elderly and dis-abled residents. The HEAT Program is open until April 30, 2016. Contact Mountainland Association of Govern-ments at 801-229-3855 for more information.

HEALTH TIPS (princesslife.com)

HOUSING FACT

Safe homes and neighborhoods help to build social stability and security.

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SAVING TIP (blog.transamerica.com) Put a Shamrock in Your Savings This St. Paddy’s

Day

In the United States, St. Patrick’s Day is best known as a celebration of our Irish brethren’s heritage—usually in the form of epic street parades, wild green attire and of course, endless pints of green beverages. Yet despite the party, this is actually the perfect oppor-tunity to think about your retirement savings.

Seriously, what better time to start planting seeds of better savings habits than on the luckiest day of the year?

Even if you don’t subscribe to the whole luck-of-the-Irish thing, you can always improve your odds of a comfortable retirement just by creating—and stick-ing—to a game plan. So before you raise your mug this year, take a minute to learn how you can raise your retirement savings—and truly Transform Your Tomorrow®.

Plant your four-leaf clover today and start saving.

Step 1: Create a winning game plan.

It doesn’t matter how much luck you have on your side if you don’t have a plan. So if you haven’t already, the first thing you’ll want to do is figure out your net worth.

How to estimate your net worth.

Simply subtract your total debt from your total assets. Remember, you can estimate your total debt by add-ing up all of your loans and mortgage, credit cards and other outstanding balances. You can estimate your total assets by adding up the value of all of your in-vestments, savings, retirement accounts, owned prop-erty and personal valuables.

This number will serve as the foundation of your plan—and don’t worry if it’s negative, that’s actually pretty normal.

Next, set a realistic retirement goal, in dollars and age, and work backwards. How much do you need to save by when? There are many online calculators to help you with gathering numbers.

Once you have a goal and a timeline, here are the next steps to consider taking toward retirement readi-ness:

• Divide your net income by ten and create a yearly, monthly and weekly budget that allows you to save at least that much every year.

• Save extra when you can to make up for lost time.

• Ramp up your contribution to your employer’s re-tirement plan.

• Invest in your own retirement plan.

• Grow your income as much and as often as possi-ble.

• Safeguard your money.

(www.cdc.gov) SAFETY TIP 6

• Track your retirement goals

Step 2: Be savings-positive.

St. Patrick is remembered for bringing the positive force of change and proverbial rainbows to the people of Ire-land. You may not need to take the vow of poverty to save more money, but consistently saving over time may help you create your own rainbow someday.

There is no better time than now to take a closer look at your personal spending habits, set up a simple monthly budget, and find as many ways to cut back as possible.

Step 3: Max out the benefits of participating in your

employer’s retirement option.

If your employer offers a retirement plan, and odds are they do, make sure you’re enrolled and taking advan-tage of the benefits. Find out if they offer an employee match and try to contribute at least as much as they’ll match you. Typically, that’s three-to-five percent of your salary. You’ll also want to automate as much of the heavy lifting as possible. This includes automatic contri-bution, automatic contribution increases, and automatic portfolio management.

Step 4: Keep growing your income—even into retire-

ment.

Regardless of your current retirement saving situation, you should always be on the lookout for ways to in-crease your disposable income—into retirement and beyond.

Check the career center at your local library or at your former school, talk to your manager about a raise or pro-motion, or search for moneymaking opportunities online. There are plenty of sites and social networks that can connect you with something in your wheelhouse.

Bottom line: Don’t expect to get lucky by winning the lottery. After all, St. Patrick didn’t achieve his destiny overnight. You’ll find that the real “luck of the Irish” is simply hard work and determination that pays off.

Start doing the simple things mentioned above and you just might find, luck is already on your side.

Thank You Fairfield Inn of Orem

Alison’s Pantry Andrea Jensen Bennett Events Bill and Mary Street BYU American Society of Civil Engineers BYU Campus Chapter Community Action Services and Food Bank Cynthia Gambill Doris Rusaw Edge Homes Eide Bailly Fairfield Inn of Orem Gavin Brewer and Alakazam Grant Sumsion

Johnny McCoy and McCoy’s Flooring and Cabinets

Kandis Gasdik Karen Hamilton Magelby Construction Marla Barnum Mary Cisneros Mayor James Hatfield Mayor John Curtis Merilee Bishop Michael Salisbury NuSkin Sue Curtis Tami Harris Utah County Health Department

UVU Campus Chapter

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SAVING TIP 7 (www.wellnessjunction.com/

• Screen distance — you should sit approximately 20 inches from the computer monitor, a little further than you would for reading distance, with the top of the screen at or below eye level.

• Equipment — choose a monitor that tilts or swivels, and has both contrast and brightness controls;

• Furniture — an adjustable chair is best;

• Reference materials — keep reference materials on a document holder so you don’t have to keep looking back and forth, frequently refocusing your eyes and turning your neck and head;

Another thing to remember is that the forced-air heating systems in big office buildings can increase problems with dry eyes during the winter months. The usual symp-toms of dry eye are stinging or burning eyes, scratchi-ness, a feeling that there’s something in the eye, exces-sive tearing or difficulty wearing contact lenses.

Over-the-counter eye drops, called artificial tears, usually help, but if dry eye persists, see your eye doctor for an evaluation.

March Is Eye Safety Month With so many people using computers at work and at home, complaints of eye strain, difficulty focusing and discomfort have become commonplace in doctors’ offices.

One of the main reasons for this is — although offices have marched into the age of technology, not much else has. People are still using the same lighting, furni-ture and desk configurations they had when using typewriters.

To mark March as Workplace Eye Safety Month, the American Academy of Ophthalmology has put to-gether some tips to help us alleviate some of the eye problems modern technology has given birth to. They are:

• First and most important — get an eye exam by your ophthalmologist, who can rule out the possi-bility of eye disease as the cause of your symp-toms. You could simply need glasses when work-ing at a computer, or your prescription might need updating.

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Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1-Gundersen Groundbreak-ing -Building

2 3 4 5

6 7 8Fundraising Breakfast —Development Services

9-Neighborhood Revitalization --Volunteer Committee

10-

Executive/Finance

-Nominating

11 12-Crew and Site Host Training

13 14 15 16 17-Happy St. Patrick’s Day

-ReStore

18 19

20 21 22 23-Recognition Dinner

24 25 26

27 Easter 28 29 30 31-Love Give Utah-Home Mainte-nance

Of Utah County

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Gundersen Groundbreaking March 1st 9:00 a.m. 332 East 580 South, AF Building March 1st 2:00 p.m. Central Bank Riverside Branch Fundraising Breakfast March 8th 8:00 a.m. Riverside Country Club Development Services March 8th Noon Orem Habitat office Neighborhood Revitalization March 9th 4:00 p.m. Orem Habitat office Volunteer Committee March 9th 4:30 p.m. Orem Habitat office Executive/Finance March 10th 4:00 p.m. Orem Habitat office Nominating March 10th 6:30 p.m. Orem Habitat office Crew and Site Host Training March 12th 9:00 a.m. Orem Habitat office Happy St. Patrick’s Day March 17th ReStore March 17th 7:30 a.m. Orem Habitat office Recognition Dinner March 23rd 6:00 p.m. Castle Park in Lindon Love Give Utah March 31st Home Maintenance March 31st 6:30 p.m. Orem Habitat office

HOUSEHOLD HINT (besthouseholdhintsandtips.com)

To clean and deodorize basins and tubs, sprinkle with Arm & Hammer baking soda, clean with a damp sponge, then rinse with water. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is non-abrasive and will not scratch surfaces.