May 24, 2024

Sherri has been the interim director of the West Tallahatchie Habitat chapter since her predecessor, her daughter, left for nursing school. She stepped in until they could find someone full-time and has been there since. It helps that she is a volunteer and Habitat does not have to pay her. She filled me in on what is going on with West Tallahatchie Habitat.

Ariel and family are putting in plenty of work on her house, more than we have typically seen in our trips down here.

Just before Covid, we were one of the last groups to work on House #46, then volunteers quit showing up and the family finished most of the house themselves.

Volunteer groups are starting to pick back up. We were the first group to come down here after the Covid pandemic, and several more are coming down this year. The crowd from Urbana High School are due in June. We’ll say more about them later when we talk about allocating wall space for plaques.

“Maybe the people at the community college in Clarksdale (Coahoma Community College) will come. That would be good. And it would be good for the students. They are learning construction. They can get some experience.”

Right now West Tallahatchie Habitat owns the land the houses are on. Once the last two houses are finished, the land can be turned over to the town of Tutwiler.

“Then we can get some services from the city. Water service, sewer service, trash service. Right now we can’t get the city to do anything and the county can’t do anything without the town’s permission. We tried to get them to put down more gravel in the roads and they can’t do it.”

Once the subdivision is done, the Habitat chapter will move on to other things. Habitat International wants to do a project with all the chapters to honor Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter.

They are looking for land in the area and are aiming at the town of Webb, which is about seven miles away.

“We have lots of requests for us to do rehab work, or asking us if we know someone who does it. We would like to branch out, but we just don’t have the money. We are looking for grants but we don’t have money to hire a grant writer. “

“When I moved here, there was a factory right down the road, another across the highway, another on the other side of town. Those are all gone. People had to move. There were no jobs.”

But things continue to go on and Sherri is not planning to leave any time soon.

The Habitat chapter got started when Sister Maureen followed Sister Anne Brooks down here. Sister Maureen was the driving force behind the community center and a tough act to follow.

“She lets me know when she is coming down here. I tell her I am just trying to complete her vision. When we finish the last two houses, we will have some sort of celebration. I don’t know if Sister Anne can come. We’ll have to have a picture of her or something. But Sister Anne and Sister Maureen, they were the ones who had a vision for this town. I am just trying to complete thier vision.”