Family duties call for retiring Habitat for Humanity leader
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/65140/
Patsy Brewer, once identified as the face of Habitat for Humanity of Washington County, is retiring as executive director after 16 years. Her last day will be June 30.
“ I am needing more time for our family as Ted’s Alzheimer condition progresses, ” Brewer wrote in her customary forthright manner in a letter announcing her decision to focus on caring for her husband.
Habitat for Humanity is an international nonprofit organization that provides the opportunity for lowincome individuals to own their own home through payments on loans from Habitat and required sweat equity hours.
“ Most people remember Patsy for her tenacity and her willingness to get things done, ” said Tommy Lewis, Habitat board president. “ You’ll never find a more dedicated person, whether paid or unpaid, than she’s been to Habitat and the families. ”
Brewer’s first contact with Habitat for Human- ity was in South Carolina, where she joined with other church families trying to finish a simple, decent, affordable home for a low-income family in time for Christmas. Brewer painted.
Her first contact in Fayetteville was after seeing staff in the office of Dr. Thurman Crocker in their Habitat for Humanity shirts. Brewer decided to get involved again and volunteered to do public relations and fundraising work.
Before long, she was the volunteer director for a year, then the part-time director at 20 hours per week, which worked up to “ a traditional 40 hour week” of far more than 40 hours.
“ It is a long time. I never had any idea when I walked in the door to volunteer, ” she said, her voice trailing off as she remembered that there wasn’t actually a Habitat door to walk through then. Fayetteville City Hospital let the organization use rooms at the 419 W. Rock St. facility for meetings. It is now home base for the merged — and much larger — organization.
When Brewer joined the Fayetteville group, it was in its infancy.
Under her leadership over the years, the group has built homes for 40 families — housing 49 adults and 97 children — had two “ women’s builds, ” merged with the Springdale group to form Washington County Habitat for Humanity, and started Habitat HabiStore, a resale store for building supplies, tools and home improvement items.
Brewer helped set the stage for a new director.
Ahead lies the Habitat neighborhood on eight acres of former city land near Huntsville Road and Morningside Drive. Closing documents for the neighborhood of 40 to 50 Habitat homes were signed in February.
It is still in planning stages, with the early phases soon to begin to wend their way through city processes.
Like all things Habitat, the neighborhood is built on partnerships, in this case with the city, the University of Arkansas Community Design Center and others.
“ It’s everybody that has made Habitat happen, ” Brewer said, naming volunteers, board members, the city, committee members, staff, sponsors and contractors.
“ If they hadn’t pulled together, it just wouldn’t happen, ” she said.
Before the new Habitat for Humanity neighborhood gets built though, the new director will have to step into Brewer’s footsteps to help find land for homes for the 14 families on the waiting list who have already met Habitat criteria and are looking forward to a home they can afford and help build.
Brewer’s next focus is to continue helping Ted find his way in his new world.
“ His ability to do things is getting limited, yet he wants to do things, and that’s the really sad thing, ” Brewer said of her husband, past president of Fayetteville Rotary.
She said she included it in her announcement to let people know that Alzheimer’s disease is not selective — it can be in anyone’s family.
“ You can take it two ways, ” she said. “ You can say, ‘ Why me ? ’ and ‘ Woe, woe, woe ’ or just say, ‘ That’s the way it is. ’ ”
When the doctor told Ted Brewer his condition, Brewer’s response, according to his wife of 52 years, was, “ Well, that’s what I have and we’ll deal with it. ”
The Brewers would not be in Fayetteville except for Ted Brewer’s role as quality control and operations manager at the Campbell Soup Co.
Now his memory and fine motor skills are failing and he has once again asked Patsy to be his wife, evidently forgetting that she is. They plan a church wedding or some sort of renewal service with family this summer.
“ Life is full of many stages, ” Patsy Brewer said. “ It just seems like every time a door closes in a life, a window opens and you just go with that. ”
Although her focus will be on Ted after she retires, Brewer will continue the habit of community service she learned as a girl searching for scrap metal during World War II.
She said she’ll be working with the neighborhood project, although she doesn’t know for how long.
She also said there’s a strong possibility she will volunteer with Habitat after retiring.
“ Time will tell, ” she said.