Community Work |
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New Prairie Construction’s core values include a commitment to community involvement. Since the fall of 2007, we have been working with the local Presbyterian churches to help rehab a home for the Center for Women in Transition in Champaign. Through the work of many volunteers and the leadership of New Prairie, the house is nearing completion and will be made available as temporary housing in early 2009. It will be central Illinois' first single women's shelter. Since 2000, we have been volunteers at the Children’s Building Fair at the historic Orpheum Theatre (which we helped transform into today’s Orpheum Children’s Science Museum). The carpentry activities are a favorite with children and adults alike. Our staff also have supervised booths for exploring plastering and tiling. In 1999 we served as site specialists for Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County’s first women-built home. For the duration of the build, we donated 20% of our weekly labor to the project, teaching and overseeing women volunteers in framing, roofing, window installation, and interior trim work. We are also frequent contributors of materials to Restore, Habitat’s resale shop.New Prairie is a corporate member of Champaign County’s Preservation and Conservation Association (PACA), and we have won numerous awards for our renovations of historic structures. We contribute to and purchase salvaged items from PACA on a regular basis. In 1998 New Prairie installed playground equipment and built storage bins for a newly located women’s shelter. And in 1997 and 1998 we represented women working in carpentry for Girl Scout Career Day. New Prairie’s owners, Jill Mulder and Julie Birdwell, have been instructors at Parkland College and Urbana Adult Education (Urbana School District 116), teaching classes for “handywomen” and in home maintenance and repair. Julie also speaks frequently to a variety of audiences about strawbale construction and sustainable building. |
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