When Westerville’s many organizations are faced with a challenge, they’re quick to come up with a solution. And during the pandemic, nonprofit Westerville Habitat Partnership (WHP) has found creative ways to accomplish its goals. The organization works with churches, individuals and other institutions to provide decent and affordable housing to eliminate substandard housing – one family at a time.
WHP organizes multiple events throughout the year to support and spread awareness of their mission.
Every year, the Tapestry Team, including co-chairs Kay Hedges and John Cameron, discusses the future of their Tapestry of a Town event. However, this year is a bit different. In a typical year, Tapestry of a Town brings together volunteers such as hosts, docents, guest musicians and more to design a walking tour of historic buildings and homes in Uptown Westerville.
This year, the tour is self-guided and includes a map and pictures of the sites to visit, giving tourists a chance to enjoy the experience however they like.
“Last year we noticed lots of people out walking around Uptown, but since we couldn’t run our event as normal, we created a listing of our sites from the past eight years and organized it in a way to allow people to do a historic tour on their own with photos and short descriptions of the various sites,” says Hedges. “It’s something to do while ambling around on a nice summer day.”
The tour map is available online at www. westervillehabitat.com and includes more than 40 locations around town, including Uptown favorites such as Barrel & Boar and Asterisk Supper Club, historic sites such as the Anti-Saloon League Museum at the Westerville Public Library and Otterbein University hotspots such as Memorial Stadium and the Otterbein Cemetery mausoleum.
Giving Back
WHP is partnered with five local churches and Columbus Academy. It works as a support group to provide funds and volunteers for Habitat for Humanity of Delaware & Union Counties as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.
The 2020 Progressive Christmas Concert was another event that changed during the pandemic. Last year, the concert was video recorded in each of WHP’s five churches without large choirs. The event featured soloists, instrumentalists and small ensembles with quieter and more contemplative music.
“The thing that sticks out to me as a major and unanticipated accomplishment is
the huge success of the virtual Progressive Christmas Concert, which is attributable to the generosity of people in our community during a difficult time for everyone,” says Cameron. “If I ever needed proof that people believe in our mission and support what we do during the most challenging of times, the virtual concert was my Christmas miracle.”
Before the pandemic, WHP’s Walls Build event required around 80 to 100 volunteers for about four hours to build the wall sections for a Habitat for Humanity house and load them on a truck to be transported. The previous three events were held at The Point at Otterbein, and while it could not be held in the same capacity in 2020, WHP still managed to make it work.
“In 2020 we held out hope that we could still manage this important event but had to cancel it,” says Hedges. “Fortunately, that was a year when our group won a quarterly contribution from 100 Women of Westerville, so we were still able to provide funding for the necessary lumber to be constructed on site by regular volunteers in Delaware.”
WHP held an in-person Walls Build in August, constructing the largest home the organization has undertaken thus far – a four-bedroom home.
“It has been a challenging time of reinventing longstanding programs,” says Hedges, “but as the needs of poorly housed people are as strong as ever, (we) do what (we) can to make a difference.”
Sanaya Attari is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
