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Several events to help Habitat for Humanity

Take part in a workshop, get your kids in the bike rodeo and check out the newest house.

By Kit Ingalls
Published February 16, 2007

DADE CITY -Volunteers, vendors, bike racers and spectators will all come together in Dade City on Sunday to benefit East Pasco Habitat for Humanity.

On Pasco Avenue, more than 100 volunteers will build a four-bedroom, 1,150-square-foot, house.

One block to the north, Lowe's will sponsor "How-to Workshops," display the latest in infrared grilling technology and host a tractor corral at the Wachovia Bank parking lot.

Around the historic county courthouse, vendors will offer items from Adirondack chairs to whimsical birdhouses, swimming pools to wooden bowls, insulation to air conditioning.

Nursery specialists, interior decorators and home organization experts will offer "do-it-yourself" advice.

The Home Improvement Show will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Around the perimeter of the show, bicycle racers competing in the 8th annual "Race for Humanity" will speed through a 10-block, closed circuit course of narrow Dade City streets.

The bike race will also offer children's activities. The first 25 contestants in the bike rodeo, at 12:30 p.m., will receive a free helmet. All participants in the kid's races at 1:30 will receive medals.

At the Home Improvement Show, children will find workshops designed especially for them at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Each workshop will be limited to 25 participants, with sign-ups beginning at 10 and 2. Each child will receive a Lowe's apron, safety glasses, a hammer and a wooden model kit for a race car or other selected project.

Adults will be able to climb aboard the latest model riding lawn mowers and navigate the tractor corral driver's course.

At adult workshops, participants will learn to build retaining walls, at 9 and 1, or to prepare their lawns for spring and summer, at 10 and 2.

Lowe's product demonstrations and displays will occupy several vendor spaces along Meridian Avenue. A 22-foot fire ant will mark the Scott's Lawn Care tent.

"We will be showcasing some of the new products we carry," says Habitat ReStore assistant manager Julie Russell. "These include laminate flooring, cabinets and tools - in addition to our gently used items."

Event visitors will be eligible for prize drawings for a weekend's stay at a Courtyard Inn, an adult bicycle, or landscape plants. Some vendors will give away merchandise. East Pasco Quilters will raffle a handmade quilt.

Five volunteers from Habitat for Humanity, Japan, will arrive from Tokyo late Friday night. Helping to construct the house at the Home Improvement Show will be the first project of their two-week stay.

All construction volunteers must attend group safety training at 8 a.m.

The house on Pasco Avenue will be open for viewing during the show and then dismantled and moved to its permanent location at Delmar Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. There, it will be reconstructed to become the 44th Habitat home built in East Pasco.

[Last modified February 16, 2007, 00:01:49]