Women Needed for Habitat Tuscaloosa’s Home Build to Honor Miss Terry Saban

A local nonprofit is calling on the women of West Alabama to come volunteer time and sweat equity to build a home in honor of the legendary Miss Terry Saban.

Far more than just the wife of the greatest college football coach of all time, Miss Terry is a renowned philanthropist and heads up the charitable Nick's Kids Foundation.

Ellen Potts, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity Tuscaloosa, said while Nick Saban was kept plenty busy winning six national championships at Alabama before he retired earlier this year, it was Miss Terry who led the Foundation's legendary partnership with the nonprofit.

After an EF-4 tornado devastated the city in April 2011, the Sabans agreed to fund the construction of a new Habitat home for every National Championship the school had ever won, then kept up the tradition for each new SEC or CFP title Nick claimed with the Tide.

"Miss Terry kind of spearheaded Nick's Kids partnership with Habitat Tuscaloosa and the more than $13 million they have given in this community, which has built 21 houses for Habitat Tuscaloosa," Potts said. "We thought about what we can do to honor that impact and the 21 families whose lives have been changed generationally moving forward and the only thing we knew to do was build. We'll have one house in honor of Miss Terry and of course a house in honor of Coach Saban."

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Both houses are under construction now in Milestone Circle, a growing neighborhood of Habitat Homes constructed on land acquired from the Builders Group. 

The neighborhood is also home to LANK House - which the Sabans had built after Nick's final SEC Championship win last year.

There's something special about the house dedicated to Miss Terry, though - to celebrate the former First Lady of Alabama Football, every volunteer on the job site will be a woman.

"Just about all our volunteers here are women," Potts said. "We have our construction crew who are male, and a couple of our Hometown Heroes who are too, but everybody else on this building is female. They're the ones using the power tools, raising walls and building the house."

Together, they're building a home with and for LaPorchia Mitchell, an interventionist with the Tuscaloosa County School System who will move into the home with her young son, who turns two this month.

"We've got some first-timers, some groups and some repeat offenders," Potts joked about the crew working Wednesday morning. "Our treasurer Michelle Robinson, who used to be our board president, she's here with a group of ladies from Bryant Bank. LaPorchia, the future homeowner, is here as part of the 200 hours of sweat equity she has to put into this house. Que Chandler, an activist who's run for city council, she's here - we just have a lot of women who want to be out here volunteering, to be a part of this."

"This is so nice because they really look up to Miss Terry here at Habitat, she and her husband and the Nick's Kids Foundation," Mitchell said. "It just makes me feel good, especially after volunteering all these hours myself, to be moving into a house dedicated to her."

In about 20 minutes, the women had raised and set frames for two of the house's exterior walls.

There are still weeks of work to do, though, and Potts said volunteers are always needed, especially on this particular job site, where work will be underway most days in October.

"We love volunteers of any skill level. If you've never held a hammer or you've framed 50 houses, anybody and anywhere in-between so long as the person is 16 or older. Men, we can put you on a different building site, women we'll stick you over here on this build but really, we love volunteers, there will always be something to do and we really need them - especially women right now to help us build this house in honor of Miss Terry."

Learn more about volunteering at the Habitat website here - the Women's Build info can be found by clicking the pink banner at the top of the page

Potts and Mitchell, the future homeowner, both talked about how much more a Habitat home is than just another place to live.

"Many of our homeowners are moving from apartments that have mold, houses that have leaks and collapsing floors and ceilings, places where plumbing that doesn't work, with electrical wiring that's a fire hazard," Potts said. "And we're getting them into a home built to the FORTIFIED Gold Standard, which is built to withstand 135-mile-an-hour winds."

Contrary to a popular misconception, Habitat homes are not given away but sold to homeowners who enter a 30-year, 0-percent interest mortgage contract with Habitat. Still, that drops the monthly payment for the $190,000 homes to around $700 a month, Potts said.

Mitchell knows in 30 years when that last payment is made, she'll have something that could spell a brighter future for her soon-to-be-2-year-old son.

"I've always wanted to have my own home. You know, growing up in poverty, you learn to want to have a stable foundation, somewhere for you and your future family to have and call your own," Mitchell said. "This house, it's security for my son and once I'm gone he'll have a home that he can share with his own family. That means a lot - it really does."

Make Jimmy Carter proud on the week of his 100th birthday and learn more about volunteering with Habitat for Humanity here. 

For more coverage of news from around West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.