Heart of Iowa Habitat for Humanity recently raised close to $8,000 for Greene County.

The money was raised at the organization’s largest fundraiser, the nativity festival, held earlier this month at the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson. Associate Director Jeff Lamoureux says they raised a total of $7,932. The pie auction brought in $1,695 through 20 pies, and the nativity scenes had $285. Additional money was given from the community Christmas concert and the soup supper.

Lamoureux says despite not being able to build a house in 2019 for Greene County, all of the funds will be used to continue their Helping Hands projects next year.

“Building a home for a family makes a huge impact on that one family, it is just one family in the county that gets that benefit. But with the Helping Hands we’re able to make an impact on a number of families. So that’s the good news of this even though we were a little disappointed we weren’t able to get it done to build a house in 2019. We’re able to help a number of families through our Helping Hands, so that’s the good news of all of this.”

Lamoureux adds that they are still accepting applications for Helping Hands projects for 2019. Interested households can contact him via email at ad@heartofhabitat.org or call his office at 386-3093.