Apollo High School Students Join Forces With Owensboro Realtors in Creative Birdhouse Fundraiser to Benefit Habitat for Humanity

Students at Apollo High School have been hard at work with a fundraiser for the birds!

Enlisting the help of local realtors, the JAG (Jobs for America's Graduates) Class at Apollo has been prepping homes for sale. This is typically something an accomplished professional could do in their sleep, but there is a bit of a twist this time. The homes in question are literally for birds.

Each year, teacher Melody Wallace's group of students is required to participate in a fundraiser to benefit Owensboro's Habitat for Humanity.  This particular project began last year after an impromptu meeting of the minds including the fabulous Ms. Wallace, Shawna Kellems a sales consultant for Jagoe Homes and Habitat board member, and Habitat Executive Director Jeremy Stephens. "Jeremy had an idea of incorporating birdhouses for sale and thought it would be fun to list them like homes," Shawna told me.

Thirteen teams of kids are assigned realtor mentors to help them design really cool birdhouses with different themes that will be raffled off.  The realtors will be selling raffle tickets for $10 each with all proceeds benefitting Habitat for Humanity of Owensboro. Shawna said, "Tyler Shookman's team won last year, and I know the others are thinking very competitive thoughts as to how to beat him this year!" No one knows competition like these folks.

I reached out to the defending champion, Tyler Shookman, to see what his team has been up to. "My favorite part of this fundraiser is interacting with the students. Each realtor is teamed up with a group of students to construct the birdhouse. Then we come up with a theme and marketing plan together! My team built a fairy tale cottage with cute little gnomes... "There's no place like gnome." How adorable is that?

Carter Court Community is the newest neighborhood of homes Habitat is building in the area and ten families are expected to move in this fall. The JAG students have set themselves a goal of $5,000 to assist these families and support the mission of Habitat. "Seeking to put love into action, Habitat for Humanity Owensboro-Daviess County brings people together to build homes, community and hope through housing solutions of home ownership, community development and critical home repair." 

These students are the perfect example of putting love into action. "It's very inspiring to see how hard they work on these birdhouses and planning how to accomplish their goal," Shawna and the other mentors are committed to helping these generous young folks make a difference in the community.

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If you want to support the cause, you can find more information on their Birdhouse Raffle Facebook event page or follow Apollo JAG. Raffle tickets can be purchased through Venmo, PayPal, cash, and check from March 7th-18th with the winning birdhouse announced on March 21st.

Here are the birdhouses up for grabs! Look how creative!