Welcome to The Atlanta Fuller Center For Housing, Inc.

Atlanta Fuller Center for Housing volunteers work to repair the roof of the Blessings Thrift Store in McDonough.

By Johnny Jackson
jjackson@henryherald.com

The recent efforts of the Atlanta Fuller Center for Housing, and its community partners, are paying off for Blessings Thrift Store in McDonough.

Area residents helped complete repairs around the thrift store at 86 Work Camp Road, late last month. It was part of the Fuller Center’s “McDonough Project.”

The Fuller Center is a faith-based, non-profit organization created in 2005 by the late Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, to provide adequate housing for people in need.

Fuller Center volunteers were joined by members of Wesley Way United Methodist Church’s River of Life youth group in McDonough, who repainted the store’s exterior, and rebuilt its leaky roof.

“Buckets, it was leaking,” said Marjorie Lacy, executive director of Haven House, the not-for-profit beneficiary of the thrift store. Haven House is an area domestic abuse shelter based in McDonough.

Lacy said project organizers from the Fuller Center approached the thrift store about the repairs earlier this summer, after learning about its needs.

“We’re very appreciative of the help,” Lacy said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it at all. The people that came in were wonderful. It was great.”

Lacy said Henry County government supplied labor to help with the roofing and interior carpentry, as well as make drainage repairs.

“We estimate that the total cost of the improvements was approximately $17,000, when you consider replacing all the roofing, fascia boards and soffits, painting the entire building, and replacing the interior ceiling tiles,” said Michael Harris, Henry County’s director of planning and development services.

“We were fortunate to have the Fuller Center and Wesley Way United Methodist Church select this facility as one of the recipients for their volunteer outreach project,” Harris said. “With the Fuller Center providing all of the materials, and Wesley Way providing volunteers to do the work, the county’s investment of a mere $1,000 for miscellaneous supplies went much further than we even imagined,” he said.

Shane Persaud, a project coordinator with the Fuller Center, helped secure discounted rates on building materials. “Atlas Roofing, for example, was able to provide us with high-quality roofing materials and save us even more money,” added Persaud.

The Blessings Thrift Store is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m., to 4 p.m. To learn more about the Haven House or Blessings Thrift Store, visit www.henryhavenhouse.com, or call (770) 954-9229. For more about The Atlanta Fuller Center for Housing, or to volunteer on a project, visit http://www.atlantafullercenter.org, or call (404) 835-7728.