Habitat dedicates 501st home in Midway
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Franklin Hayes/Gulf Breeze News Habitat for Humanity's Vice President of U.S. and Canadian Operations, Ken Meinert, left, works alongside his father, John Meinert, at a construction site off of Ambassador Drive.

It's not every day that a vice president of a major non-profit corporation visits the Gulf Breeze area.

On Thursday, March 8, Ken Meinert, who serves as Vice President of U.S. and Canadian Operations with Habitat for Humanity came to South Santa Rosa County for a very special occasion. The VP took time off from his busy schedule to dedicate the 501st home built by the local affiliate.

"The habitat affiliate here really stepped up," said Meinert, who had recently visited Mississippi and New Orleans. "They're really a shining example to our affiliates across the region. They are a real example of what can be done when a community comes together."

The 500th home built by Pensacola Habitat for Humanity in their 26-year history was dedicated in Milton earlier this year. Meinert was on hand to dedicate the 501st home located on the 5800 block of Capital Drive in Gulf Breeze.

Before the dedication ceremony, Meinert could be found hammering away at another Habitat for Humanity site only blocks away on the 1900 block of Ambassador Drive. The corporate officer even brought some members of his family, including his brother, Bernard Freismuth, and his father, John Meinert, to help construct the approximately 1,100 square foot home.

"This is my first year doing this and I'm very impressed. The walls weren't even together when we got here this morning," Freismuth said as he gazed upon the wooden skeleton of the home on Ambassador Drive that now stood before him.

Meinert, whose corporate office is in Americus, Ga., said that over the last five years his organization has spent over $100 million on construction nation wide, is active in 1,700 communities in North America, and currently works in close to 100 countries.

"Without groups like the Mennonites, college students and congregational groups who support our work, we wouldn't be accomplishing any of this," Meinert said.

David and April Dobson will purchase The Ambassador Drive home with a no-interest mortgage. Meinert said the Dobson's would probably pay close to $65,000 for their home - a price that reflects the construction cost and not the posthurricane housing market inflation.

"We believe that once people have a safe and simple house they can be everything God wants them to be," Meinert said.

For more information about Pensacola Habitat for Humanity call 434-5456.