On July 22, volunteers gathered in a parking lot off of Oak Street in downtown Laurel for a free community dumpster day. The Dumpster Day was setup through Sussex County Habitat for Humanity's Neighborhood Revitalization department in conjunction with the neighborhood revitalization grant recently received thanks to a partnership with Lowe's.

During the two and half hour event, 15 volunteers from Vital Church in Laurel, four Habitat staff members, three Seaford Lowe's employees, two AmeriCorps members, one Stand by Me staff member, and Bill McGowan a  representative of the town of Laurel, helped unload 16 vehicle loads of trash and yard waste into dumpsters. Three members of Vital church who brought their trucks and trailers, went to six area homes and  picked up additional waste. Many of the homes that trash was picked up from were previous partners of Habi tats in the repair program or had taken part in the   Rock the Blo ck  event in March.

In total two 30 cubic yard industrial roll-off dumpsters were   filled along with an ot her yard waste trailer. The next  dumpster day will t ake place November 18th in Laurel, the exact times and location for the dumpster will be announced closer to the event. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this a successful day. 

Jan LoBiondo loves to sew. Jan has been sewing for more than fifty years. She says, "You only can sew so many things for your home, then it becomes more enjoyable to make them for someone else." That is why Jan started Common Thread.

Common Thread is a group of women that meets twice a month to sew household items for new Habitat homeowners. The group varies in size usually drawing between four and six ladies for a morning of sewing. The items, window valances, pillowcases, placemats, pillows, laundry hampers, quilted throws, etc. are presented, in a basket, to Habitat homeowners at their home dedication.  Jan stays in contact with the Habitat staff to make sure she is up to date on the partner families to best tailor items for the family.   During the past two years Common Thread has produced around 50 baskets thanks to Jan and her sewers.

If the family has a baby, Jan turns to another organization that she is involved with, Quilts of Love.  Quilts of Love makes baby quilts that are handed out to area organizations for at risk babies. The quilts are created during five "Quilting Bees" held each year, each "Bee" creating around 100 quilts.

Jan first volunteered on a build site with a Habitat affiliate in Baltimore many years ago. When she moved to Delaware, she volunteered at the Georgetown ReStore .  However, Jan saw an opportunity to get involved more regularly, two years ago, when the lady providing the baskets for Sussex County Habitat could no longer do so. At that time Jan had already been  involved with Quilts of Love for nearly 8 years.

Jan reached out to her church, Eagle's Nest Fellowship Church in Milton, DE to see about hosting a sewing session twice a month. Since then Jan and various ladies have met for 3 hours and sewn for Habitat.  In addition to starting the group, Jan also gathers all the supplies needed for the projects. She purchases different fabrics and threads so during a meeting the women can work on a specific project. At her home Jan has a running total of all the items that have been created and puts together the baskets for the families.

One of the sewers is a lady that is no longer able to come to the Common Thread meetings.  Violet is 85 years old and has become known as "The Placemat Lady". Violet loves making placemats. Jan gathers all the supplies for Violet and drops them off to her so that she too can continue to support Habitat.

 "Habitat was a natural place for me to share my sewing skills because it is a Christian organization. I have been to a couple of the dedications; it feels very special to present the baskets to the families. You can see their gratefulness." Jan said.

Like Habitat, Common Thread is about bringing people together to build a stronger community; Habitat does it through use of a hammer, Common Thread through the use of a needle. Together the organizations can create not just a house but a home.