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Hammer Time — No matter where you live or what motivates you, there is a role with Thrivent Builds for a volunteer just like you.
By Jennifer Krempin
Evergreen, Colorado
Giving Inspires Giving
 The Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity affiliate, based in Evergreen, Colorado, was at a pivotal moment. Looking for opportunities to help more families, yet facing another year of lean budgeting, the affiliate “needed something to push us to our goals,” says Becky Potter, development director with Blue Spruce, which serves mountain communities 45 minutes west of Denver, Colorado. “The Thrivent Builds alliance was it.”
After news of the alliance was communicated to donors, a man whose family foundation had been donating $7,000 annually for five years sent Blue Spruce a check for $50,000. “He didn’t want any fanfare,” Potter recalls. “He just sent in a letter with the check saying that the news about the Thrivent Builds initiative—and the security it afforded our affiliate—was what he had ‘been waiting for’ to give a large donation.”
The Blue Spruce affiliate has been building one or two homes every year since 1994. Thanks to the Thrivent Builds alliance and the resulting $50,000 donation, the affiliate will increase its annual builds by 50 percent, with a goal of building four homes per year by 2007.
“The Thrivent Builds alliance has completely strengthened and expanded our capabilities,” Potter says. “We now have the leverage to inspire new donors and experience even more growth.”
Houston, Texas
The Heart of the Housing Crisis
 Suffering a chronic heart condition, Jerald Coates seemed an unlikely ambassador for the heavy labor usually associated with building homes. But when serious floods in 2004 tore apart homes south of Wharton County, Texas, he began a tireless crusade within the Fort Bend-Wharton County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to generate as much support for Habitat for Humanity as he could.
Though Coates died in the spring of 2005, his legacy continues. Inspired by Coates’ passion, the chapter is supporting the development of six new Thrivent Builds homes through the Houston and the Northwest Harris County affiliates of Habitat for Humanity.
“Jerald had a passion for helping others,” recalls his friend Ben Powell, president of the Fort Bend-Wharton County Chapter. “He had heart trouble and couldn’t be out there doing the building, but he still wanted to make it happen. He saw a need and helped others see it, too. Our individual gifts find a way to make themselves known.”
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