Habitat for Humanity Sarnia-Lambton is dedicating its latest builds to a longtime volunteer.
The nonprofit held a groundbreaking ceremony on Emma Street in Sarnia Thursday morning, the site of two new homes.
During the ceremony, CEO David Waters paid tribute to the late Maurice McAuslan of Petrolia.
"What do you say about Maurice? He spent so many years on our site and he came, like, 24-7. He was there everyday like it was his job," said Waters. "And when he came, he brought a truck and a trailer full of tools. So if we didn't have something, Maurice had it."
Longtime Habitat for Humanity volunteer Maurice McAuslan. (Photo from Facebook)
McAuslan dedicated 11 years to Habitat, accumulating over 18,700 hours. He passed away in February of last year at the age of 73.
The build will be known as "McAuslan Manor" and will feature a memorial sign with the dedication upon completion.
Waters is hopeful that they'll be handing over the keys to the new tenants by the end November.
"We're starting a little late. Normally we would start late May, but now we're not going to start until late June, early July," said Waters. "But we still feel like we can get it done by the end of November."
The first family of seven, from Syria, includes a grandmother, mother, father and four children. The second family is a mother with four children and one grandchild.
Habitat said families are selected on the basis of need, their ability to repay a no-down payment, no-interest mortgage, and their commitment to volunteer 500 hours.
The semi-detached dwelling will be Habitat's 65th and 66th home build in Sarnia-Lambton.
Looking forward, Waters said they always have something exciting in the works.
"Our biggest one is hopefully next year with the tiny home row housing, and we're sort of going through some hoops with the city but we're hoping to get those solved," said Waters. "That will be exciting and new to the community because it's tiny, micro-units basically, so we're looking forward to building something different."
