Last week was a very productive one for Dallas County Habitat for Humanity. That started with the “Rock the Block” event that ran Wednesday through Saturday in Perry.

Volunteers worked on projects at five houses in one neighborhood, completing two of them and getting the other three around 70-80% complete. Habitat Outreach Coordinator Omar Padilla said they had great volunteer numbers throughout the week, averaging around 35-45 volunteers per day. That included Wednesday, when Perry High School sent several students to help for their volunteer day event of homecoming week. Padilla says the four-day event had the highest number of volunteers in three years. He believes there’s a natural momentum building, and he’s hopeful it continues at this pace. In the coming weeks, he says they will return to the three houses they didn’t complete last week, and put the finishing touches on them.

Of course, the support Dallas County Habitat received last week wasn’t limited to just volunteers. At a ceremony Thursday morning, Raccoon Valley Bank presented them a check for $15,000. The money was the first of two installments in order to help fund work on the new house Habitat will be building in Perry next year. A second check for $10,000 will be presented some time in 2018. Padilla was very thankful to the bank for seeing their work as worth supporting, and he’s hopeful other businesses and organizations will arrive at the same conclusion.