It all started with a case of Habititis.
 
In 1983, Janice Nigh’s son and his confirmation class went to Americus, Georgia, to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity International. “When they came back, there seemed to be a transformation in that group of kids,” says Nigh. “They weren’t real close friends before they left, but they were afterwards. And they felt like they accomplished a lot, working on the houses.”
 
Her son’s experience was so compelling that the following year, the whole Nigh family returned to Americus for another week of volunteering. The result: “I got what I call Habititis,” Nigh says. “I was addicted to it.”
 
Upon returning, she and her husband volunteered at Milwaukee Habitat. They soon found out that a group of Sheboygan-area residents were thinking of starting a Habitat affiliate for Sheboygan County. They got involved, and Sheboygan County Habitat for Humanity made its debut in the spring of 1993. Nigh was its first president.
 
The first few months were anything but easy. Per Habitat International guidelines, the new Habitat had to raise a total of $3,000 from 15 different sources. “That was a lot of money, considering we could build a house for $35,000,” Nigh says. “It was hard, because people kept saying, ‘come back to us when you build the first house.’” Despite setbacks, Nigh and the board kept going. “I just had the vision of seeing that first house,” she says.
 
Vinyl Plastics Inc. (VPI) of Sheboygan donated $35,000, thanks to a Nigh connection, and the new affiliate broke ground for its first home in the spring of 1993. Individuals and corporate sponsors, including VPI and Rust Engineering, supported the project with donations of land, money, and people power. A Blitz Build, a strategy that completes the exterior of the home in a week, jump-started the home, located on South 27th St. in Sheboygan. The home was dedicated in the fall.
 
In its first two years of existence, the new affiliate built three homes. Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity International, dedicated the third home, which was built in Sheboygan Falls. “He nailed the numbers on the house for us,” says Nigh, who completed her term as president in 1995, then became a Wisconsin state volunteer for the international organization. Even though Nigh was working full time as a computer systems analyst, she traveled around the state to help new affiliates get started.
 
Over the last 32 years, Habitat Lakeside has completed 52 homes and is building three more this year. House No. 53 broke ground in August on the Sheboygan’s north side. It’s all part of a plan to build five homes a year by 2027, and it proves that some things never change. Sheboygan County had a need for affordable housing back in 1993, and it still does. In Wisconsin, the median income for renters is $41,300 a year, and the income needed to buy a mid-priced home is twice that, at $82,000.
 
Habitat Lakeside’s need for donations and volunteers remains as strong as the need for affordable housing. Nigh, for one, would like to see more young people aware of and involved in the organization. “You have a lot more options than we did,” says Nigh, noting that the organization was launched well before the dawn of social media. (We second that notion: Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and if you want to participate in the most enjoyable volunteer gig in the area, sign up to volunteer at our ReStore.)

One thing that hasn’t changed is our mission. Seeking to put God’s love in action, we bring people together to build homes, community, and hope. “We could not have accomplished any of this without the support of God,” Nigh says. A force, one might say, even greater than Habititis.

A Sheboygan Press article from June 5, 1994, covering the building of Habitat Lakeside's first house, from Janice Nigh's scrapbook.

By Sam Parnitzke, Habitat Lakeside marketing intern
Returning to college or heading there for the first time can be exciting, and expensive. The average college student spends $2,500 to get settled into their dorm room or apartment. Habitat for Humanity Lakeside is here to make settling in a little more affordable, and a lot more fun.

From Aug. 13 to Aug. 16, Habitat for Humanity Lakeside’s ReStore is offering 15 percent off furniture and kitchen items. Bring your college student to the store to select a desk, shelving, file cabinet, desk chair, dresser, storage chest and other first-apartment must-haves. We even have contemporary shades of new paint (and paintbrushes and rollers) in case that apartment needs a little fixing up.

Why ReStore and not your local big box? Let us count the ways. First, many of our gently used, donated items are vintage or antique; they’re a great, affordable way to create a unique and personalized living space. Second, our items don’t come packaged in the reams of paper and plastic that smother online purchases. No packaging, nothing to end up in the landfill. Third, your ReStore purchases support Habitat Lakeside’s home-building and home-repair programs, all of which help make Sheboygan County a more vibrant community.
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Habitat Lakeside’s ReStore is located at 1911 N. 8th St. in Sheboygan. Store hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Learn more about ReStore at sheboyganrestore.org.

By Charlie Allis, Habitat Lakeside marketing intern
At Habitat for Humanity Lakeside, we believe that everyone deserves an affordable, safe, and decent place to call home. But have you ever wondered what it truly takes to build each one of those homes?
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Connecting with a family in need is the first step toward building a Habitat home. We find these families through our Home Buyer program application process. We review applications and identify individuals who demonstrate a need for safe and affordable housing. They must have a stable income that falls within our qualifying guidelines. They must also be willing to put in 250 hours of volunteer work either at the ReStore or at the home build site.

Getting funding and land is the next step toward affordable housing. The source of most of our funding is monetary and in-kind donations of building materials from generous individuals, sponsors, or corporations who want to make a difference in their community. Our ReStore, where we sell donated (and restored) items as well as new merchandise, ranging from tools and doors to furniture, also helps fund our home-building and repair projects.

We obtain the land we build on mainly through private donations; however, we also purchase and develop land for Habitat homes.

Each home we build requires permits and planning that must be completed before we begin building the house or even doing any work on the land, for instance grading or excavating.

Each project requires a large-scale plan to be made before starting. Each step of the building process must be mapped out and have a timeline, which is important because it ensures that the home will be built properly and efficiently. Without the permits or planning, our projects would be inefficient and unproductive, or literally never get off the ground.

To ensure that we treat each family equally, we also follow specific guidelines for each home. For instance, the size of the family determines the number of rooms in the house. While homes tend to not have garages, each does have an outdoor storage shed.

Our next step is gathering labor. The help of volunteers makes everything we do at Habitat Lakeside possible. We are constantly looking for volunteers and have many different positions to assist in, from building on one of our sites to working as a cashier in our ReStore, which helps fund our programs, including home building. Volunteering on the job site is a great way to learn new skills while having fun and helping others who may be in need. Volunteer work at the ReStore or the job site helps us and helps volunteers help the community.  

Each house that we build has a multitude of steps that must be taken in proper order, ranging from finding a suitable family to build the house for to getting the required permits to finding volunteers. These steps help ensure that each family will have a safe, affordable, and stable home to live in. The final product is rewarding for the family and for everyone who helped along the way.