Citrus County Rotary Clubs help provide additional hand up, participate in Community Build Day

If you are building it, they will come.
Citrus County Rotarians showed up in force Saturday, April 13, at Habitat for Humanity of Citrus County’s (HFHCC) Citrus Springs development to participate in a Community Build Day.
“Personally, this was on my wish list to do a six-club project and HFHCC was a perfect fit,” said Lace Blue-McLean, assistant governor for the six Rotary Clubs in Citrus County who organized Saturday’s Community Build Day. Her own club, the Rotary Club of Inverness, has been a long-standing partner with HFHCC by donating garden houses, sprinklers and water nozzles for new homeowners for more than 15 years.
On Saturday, more than two dozen Rotarians worked alongside future HFHCC partner families and volunteers, contributing 96 hours of work, equating to two-plus weeks of work toward completion of several HFHCC homes.
“I am really excited today to have this number of Rotarians to help families toward building their homes,” said Lace Blue-McLean, assistant governor for the six Rotary Clubs in Citrus County who organized Saturday’s Community Build Day. “It’s exciting to know we are helping (Partner Families) achieve their goal of home ownership. It was great to work side-by-side with Partner Families, learning about their journeys through Habitat and its homeownership program.”
This isn’t the first time Citrus County Rotarians have teamed up with HFHCC, but it’s the first one in the post-COVID era, said Blue-McLean, who sought to bring the two organizations and its members together again to help families seeking a hand-up, not a hand out.
“We envision this to be an ongoing project between the six Rotary clubs as HFHCC expands its Citrus Springs development,” said Blue-McLean, noting five of the six Citrus County Rotary Clubs were represented Saturday. “This is a great way for Rotarians to give back to the community. Period. It’s service above self, it’s community service. HFHCC’s mission to help families obtain safe, affordable housing lines up with several of our areas of focus.”
HFHCC is so grateful that Rotarians from different clubs across Citrus County were able to come together to benefit HFHCC in building Habitat homes, said Justin Leech, HFHCC Chief Operating Officer.
“Their efforts made a significant difference in advancing the construction of our houses, which will result in our partner families being able to move into their homes sooner than anticipated and begin the next phase of their lives as homeowners with safe, decent, and affordable housing,” Leech said. ““On behalf of HFHCC, I’d like to thank our Rotarians for all of their efforts and support that they have given us both this weekend and over the years.”
If your organization, civic group, church or business would like to schedule a Community Build Day, call Jeff Bryan, communications manager, at 352-563-2744 or email [email protected].