Page 6 - Bella - June 2015

able to further her education after high school. “With those two things, she was poised to make something out of her life and she has,” Sue Ellen said.
Members of the local electrical union are “really good to donate their talents” to build Habitat houses and Glenn Mechanical provides HVAC, plumbing and foundation work at cost and they also provide materials and workers, Sue Ellen said.
Others who assist and provide materials and expertise on Habitat homes are Entergy,
El Dorado Water Utilities, CenterPoint Energy and Suddenlink – all help with
the utility portion of Habitat homes. Both Union County and El Dorado city officials and employees have worked with Habitat on things
such as ditches and service connections, she said, adding that members of the Union County Master Gardeners have helped place shrubbery at homes.
Habitat homes are not furnished, but Whirlpool donates a new stove and refrigerator for each new house and Whirlpool also allows Habitat to purchase washers and dryers and include those costs in the homeowner’s mortgage, Sue Ellen explained.
Homes are usually three bedrooms, one bath, with central heat and air and are very well insulated so new homeowners save on utility bills from their previous dwelling places. Homeowners have their choice of vinyl or carpeting on the floors and homes are built with vinyl siding on the outside. The
bathrooms have tub-shower units and vanities and toilets are donated. There are ceiling fans in the bedrooms and living room to provide energy efficiency. “Every square foot of the home is usable,” she said.
Local resident Michael Rogers with MR Designs has updated the local Habitat house plans
to make them more user friendly — he’s a member of the Habitat board, Sue Ellen said. “We are fortunate on our board (15 members) to have people representing industries and businesses with talents and professional ideas and services,” she said.
“Everybody has talents or
a gift to bring to build the house and make it a home for
a homeowner. Volunteers don’t necessarily have to hammer and saw — there are plenty of jobs,” Sue Ellen said, explaining that about 10 years ago, Habitat was able to acquire a warehouse where tools and equipment are stored.
At the warehouse, some work can continue in times of inclement weather and some pre-fab work is done, along with prep-work for home building. “We have lots of Mennonite volunteers in the
winter who do pre-fab work at the warehouse,” she said.
In addition to the family’s work with Habitat, they are also big supporters of the Union County 4-H program.
“Four-H is an amazing community program,” she said, explaining that both of her children have participated in 4-H throughout their lives and both have shown livestock at the Union County Fair.
When interviewed in April, Sue Ellen said their son, John, had just returned from the National 4-H Congress in Washington, D.C., where he made a presentation for the United States Department of Agriculture — he was one of five students from the state selected to attend the event. Both Samantha and John were 4-H record book winners – between 30 and 35 from the entire state have been selected as record book winners.
In their record books, 4-H members keep up with all their 4-H events, community service projects (both the Dillard children have served with Habitat since they were young children), leadership
opportunities, all their project work, like showing livestock and they document their 4-H work with photographs and papers detailing what they have done to complete projects.
At the 2014 Union County Fair Junior Livestock Show and Sale, 47 4-H members showed and sold their livestock and businesses and individuals paid $132,000 to buy their market lambs, goats, hogs and steer, Sue Ellen said. Four-H students use the money they make
from selling their livestock to increase their projects or to attend college.
Parents are expected to be involved in the 4-H program and “know where their kids are and where their friends are,” Sue Ellen said.
In addition to her work with Habitat and 4-H, Sue Ellen said she loves to read
– preferably
historical books – and likes to cook Mexican
food – her family’s favorite. They attend the First Assembly of God Church in El Dorado.
“We are currently revamping the Habitat website (www. eldorado-habitat.org) to let people know just when we will be working and where and what we will be doing on certain dates in the home- building process,” Sue Ellen said. El Dorado Habitat is also on Facebook.
“We live in an amazing community where people
are always willing to help
each other. For our adopted hometown, this is a pretty cool place,” she said, thanking all the businesses, individuals and volunteers who have helped throughout the years to create affordable housing for 40 families.
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6 – June 2015 – BELLA