Maroon Edition Habitat ground breaking set

August 7, 2011

By COLLEEN MCCARTHY
sdnedu@bellsouth.net

Habitat for Humanity and Mississippi State University will team up yet again for their third annual Maroon Edition House.
Ground breaking is set for Monday, with the help of MSU President Mark Keenum and a number of community and university leaders.
The ceremony will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at 70 Murdock Street in Starkville. Following an invocation and reading of scripture, Keenum will be given a hammer and the honor of driving the first nail. Zaxby’s will provide milkshakes and cookies following the ceremony.
This will be the third house for the Maroon Edition and Habitat for Humanity partnership. In 2009, the organizations built a home for a family with three children, ages 12, 10 and 6, who were living in a small house that needed a lot of repair.
Last year, they built a home for a mother with two sons. One of her sons has muscular dystrophy, so the home was built to be fully handicap accessible. The homes were built right next door to each other on Greenwood Street in Starkville.
This year’s home will be built for someone who is part of the Mississippi State family. Kimberly Riley is employed by Aramark and works at the Union on the MSU campus.
She has three children, a daughter in fifth grade, and a daughter and son in first grade. The house will be constructed mostly by MSU students, faculty, staff and alumni.
The university is asking for donations of gently used MSU t-shirts that will be used to create a quilt for each of the three families living in Maroon Edition Habitat for Humanity homes.
For more information on this project and other Habitat for Humanity projects in the community, visit http://www.starkvillehabitat.com.