Thank you to our Sweid/Student home build sponsors   Material and Service Donors ABC Sanitary Armstrong Cash & Carry Lumber Cabinetland Ltd. Cement Masons & Plasters Local #143 Champaign Heating and Air Champaign Telephone Company City of Champaign Custom Flooring & Acoustics Ezell Excavating F & R Roofing Fry Access, LLC HDC Engineering IBEW Local #601 IDSCO Illini FS Illiana Insulation Kurt B. Crail Inc. LSSI Prison Partnership Maxwell Counters MX Electric Inc. Nash Crane Service Inc. Patton Lumber Prairie Central RC's Plumbing & HVAC RP Lumber Sam's Drywall Springfield Electric Stevens Excavating Storage Options Solutions Cash Donors Orange Krush Foundation Habitat for Humanity ReStore Food Donors Chipotle Papa John's Silvermine Subs University Dining Services. University Supporters Vice Chancellor Romano Board of Trustees Jack Collins Diane Jeffers Christopher Kantas Jason Schmitz   Volunteer Social Hour this Tuesday   Volunteer Social Hour on Tuesday, May 8, from 5pm-7pm at Boltini Lounge in downtown Champaign. Bring a warm smile, a firm handshake, and get ready to mix it up with those you know... and those you'd like to know! Never been to Boltini? Here's a helpful map: http://snipurl.com/wod7.   Mother's Day Sale coming up next week!   15% off everything in the store – Friday & Saturday, May 11 & 12!! Please note: the ReStore will be closed Sunday, May 13 for Mother's Day.   Moving? Remodeling? Spring Cleaning? Donate to the ReStore!   Drop off donations are accepted any time during store hours. Please pull up to the southeast garage door and ring bell for assistance. Too large for your vehicle? Schedule a donation pick up! Donation pick ups are a $5 fee in C-U, and $10 outside C-U within a 15 mile radius. Contact us at (217)355-6460 x120 or ReStore@cuhabitat.org to schedule.   Wanted: Lovers of Volunteers   We are in need of fun-loving, detail oriented individuals to join our Volunteer Committee. This Committee works to recognize and thank all of our volunteers through events and other activities. Please contact either Courtney (volunteer@cuhabitat.org or 355-6460 x 116) or Ellen (house@cuhabitat.org or 359-0507 x 110) for more information.   Wanted: Speakers   If you like speaking to groups and are passionate about Habitat, we need you! Requests come in regularly for presentations to schools, businesses and churches, groups of 5 to 100. The Faith Relations/Speakers Bureau has developed an application for Habiteers who want to make their skills available. Applicants will indicate availability, skill and audience preferences. After training and "ride-alongs," members of the speaker pool will be contacted according to their preferences. For more information, contact Eileen (director@cuhabitat.org, 217-359-0507 x111). Thank you!   ReStore Hours   Tuesdays - Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays from 1 - 5 p.m. Coming soon: summer hours starting in June!   Habitat for Humanity Champaign County and ReStore   119 E. University Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 (217) 355-6460 ReStore (217) 359-0507 Administration www.cuhabitat.org	Brought to you by Champaign Telephone Co.     Congratulations to the Students and Sweids   The Sweids on WCIA 3 on the building of their home: video News-Gazette article by Julie Wurth: Habitat opens door to dream for Syrian family Special thanks to Senator Frerichs and Representative Jakobsson for joining us last Saturday, April 28 to celebrate the completion of our 46th home. Please help us thank all of the students who volunteered their time to raise funds and build the home alongside the Sweids: Timothy Alegarbes, Eric Anderson, Jenele Anderson, Jessa Barcus, Diana Baren, Stephanie Becker, Sarah Blatti, Jonathon Bluemke, Adam Borhart, Rick Borucke, Deborah Bynard, Sharon Cabana, Manuel Colon, Katie Connelly, Jessica Corrie, Emma Danley, Mallory Darnell, Lewis DeJaegher, Stephen Delia, Thomas Engstrom, Kurt Erbach, Kara Fishburn, Emily Fotzler, Anamae Freehauf, Kathryn Galli, Michael Gilmer, Amanda Goddard, Jen Gonzalez, Michele Grant, Caitlin Griffin, Tripta Gupta, Jenna Hall, Zaynab Hameeduddin, Daniel Heun, Phillip Hogan, Laura Horan, David Hruska, Sung-Chan Huang, Aston Hunt, John Jast, Rob Johnson, Joyce Ke, Lindsey Kerber, Stephanie Kilburn, Jamie Kim, John Kim, Matthew Knight, Gretchen Kopec, Christen Kunkler, Amy Kuo, Stephanie Larson, Matthew Law, Holly Lechniak, Samantha Lee, Christine Liang, Eric Lindberg, Jessica Martin, Jenna Link, Matthew Livas, Jimin Loh, Alecia Lotysz, Ryan Luchtefeld, Hien Luu, Lisa Mackowski, Marella McMurray, Ryan Mercer, Ryan Meschewski, Joyce Rebeca Meza, Fitih Mohammed, Daniel Morgan, Alyssa Morris, Benjamin Neidich, Ben Nugent, Shana O'Brien, Erica Van Ollefen, Bennett Parkhurst, Neal Patel, Robert Petersen, James Pierson, Elaine Pimentel, Alyssa Pleune, Miranda Pollak, Katie Prendergast, Collin Reeser, Liz Regan, Sonya Robinson, Jeffrey Ross, Paul Say, Kim Scarabello, Rebecca Schield, Brett Siegel, Scott Snyder, Meng Song, Ashley Soriano, Jonathon Stevens, Daniel Stich, Eric Surber, Sarah Syman, Erik Tamas, Allison Tegge, Lik Yin Teh, Angel Thomas, Ryan Ting, Matt Tobin, Caitlin Tribout, Jessica Wayer, Michael Welburn, Breanna Weston, Christopher Wirtz, Margaret Yoo, John Zeman and David Zimmerman. Lastly, thank you to the Student Chapter Board of Directors: President Eric Sheu, Vice President Shari Grieger, Treasurer Jeff Green, Education and Advocacy Coordinator Chad Russell, Family Connections Coordinator Sandra Lu, Fundraising Coordinators Stephanie Gioiosa and An Nguyen, Publicity Coordinator Kathryn Galli, Special Events Coordinators Marli Bardell and Elaine Estes, ReStore Coordinator Paul Hopkins, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator Charles Blatti.   Treasures at the ReStore   See new items here! Mother's Day Sale: 15% off everything in the store – Friday & Saturday, May 11 & 12!! Please note: the ReStore will be closed Sunday, May 13 for Mother's Day itself.   Hammer time   Our Thrivent Builds Homes/Illini Radio Group double-build for the Allen and Dominguez families (507 and 509 E Bradley) begins with the groundbreaking is on Saturday, 19 May at 10 a.m. The full build schedule, including tasks and needs, is listed here. If you'd like to volunteer as a crew leader, crew member or lunch provider, please contact Ellen Willcox (house@cuhabitat.org or 359-0507 x110). At least half of each crew will come from area Lutheran congregations, the remainder from the community at large. Community united!   Women Build Homes   On Mother's Day, May 13, we will launch our latest Women Build Homes partnership with the Corona family. Women Build is a Habitat for Humanity International program that encourages women and girls to have fun and make a difference by building homes and communities. If you would like to take part in the build as a member of the steering committee, build volunteer, food volunteer or fundraiser, please contact Eileen Gebbie (director@cuhabitat.org, 217-359-0507 x111).   More than picking up a hammer   Looking to get involved but Saturdays on the build site don't fit your schedule? We have any number of ways you can get involved with Habitat for Humanity. Volunteering with the ReStore is an ongoing opportunity that supports building homes, building relationships and building community. It can be as hands on as helping with our delivery service to as simple as collecting plastic shopping bags for the store's use. For more information about volunteering with the ReStore, please contact Courtney at volunteer@cuhabitat.org or 355-6460 x 116.   New Threats to "The American Dream"   Part Three of a Three Part series by Mark Middleton, Finance Manager In our first two articles, we noted between 1.2 and 2.2 million homeowners could lose their homes in the near future. We showed that this is not just a problem for low income people. Is there anything the average homeowner can do to avoid this dire condition? The first step comes from our good friends, the Mennonites: "it is a gift to be simple." The decision to simplify means making purchases based on practical necessity rather than pure desire. When my wife and I moved to Champaign from the Chicago suburbs, a beautiful house in an elegant sub-division strongly tempted us. Then we considered our age and our future ability to pay increasingly higher payments over 30 years. We bought a two-bedroom, one bath "fixer upper" and applied the Habitat for Humanity philosophy: "simple, decent, affordable" using a low interest 15 year mortgage. This single decision resulted in lower housing payments. It also means we pay a thousand dollars less in taxes and hundreds of dollars less for insurance. This principle leads to our second step: "make a budget and live within it." Of course, crisis beyond our control can threaten our financial well-being. The death of a family member, the loss of a job, unexpected medical costs, a major vehicle breakdown, or a natural storm disaster can wreck havoc on the best household budget. In these cases, it is important to communicate with creditors to work on mutually acceptable terms. The third step is to just say "no" to easy, but high-priced, credit. If you are a homeowner, you probably are deluged with offers to "lower your monthly payment" or "pay no interest until 2008!" When you look past the hype and read the fine print, you learn that these offers are often on interest-only adjustable-rate conditions, or deferred interest arrangements which will ultimately apply rates as high as 25%! If you must borrow, conventional local sources such as your neighborhood bank or credit union can offer more affordable solutions. Finally, I've learned along with many other local consumers, to reuse and recycle, as well as bargain shop, at ReStore! Over the past two years, we've purchased many new and "gently used" donations from the ReStore at a fraction of retail cost. And since ReStore sells home improvement items from appliances to ceramic tile to paint, we've found it possible to maintain and improve our home at much lower cost. Shoppers recently were able to buy whole boxes of imported tile for the retail purchase price of just one or two tiles each. Shopping ReStore is a great service to the family budget as well as the community. In making decisions slowly and with community support, the American Dream may survive.