Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga starts home restoration in Bushtown

Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity and BlueCross BlueShield prepare to improve Mary King-Russell's Bushtown residence off Citico Avenue on Wednesday.

Sixty-nine year old Mary King-Russell doesn't have the money or the robust health needed to repair her own home. So Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga is doing it for her.

Nearly two dozen volunteers stood in front of her Citico Avenue home Wednesday morning. several of them Bluecross Blueshield of Tennessee volunteers decked in aqua blue T-shirts. Other volunteers included Habitat staff and Bushtown residents.

All of them listened while Daniel Gamble, Habitat's neighborhood revitalization coordinator, gave marching orders.

"Our mission is to have no more poverty housing in the world," said Gamble. "We're doing it one neighborhood at a time."

Russell's home is among 16 houses and a middle school Habitat plans to fix up in the Bushtown community within the next year, said Dominique K. Brandt, Habitat's director of volunteers and events.

The plan is to complete Russell's and one other home and Orchard Knob Middle School this month. They will do weatherization, paint the exteriors of the homes, work on landscaping and repair the wheelchair ramps and porches.

Habitat is calling the project "A Brush with Kindness Revitalization Project."

The organization will host a block party at 12:30 Sept. 20 at the Orchard Knob Middle School field.

King-Russell stood with her two dogs on the porch as the group gathered and listened with pleasure to the plans to spruce up her home.

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Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga starts home restoration in Bushtown