Christine Todd Young, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of the Middle Keys, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the organization.
The 19th annual Mother’s Day Dolphin Tournament will be held this weekend in Marathon.
Young said, “Luckily for our main sponsor, Liechty Marine of Marathon with Suzuki, we are once again fishing for a cause. Such a great event. It’s very fun and festive. It’s one day fishing. That’s what makes it so exciting for so many people, first timers. It benefits Habitat for Humanity. Helps us build more homes, affordable homeownership in the Middle Keys. But it’s just a great time. We come together Friday night, the night at the captain’s meeting. It’s not mandatory, but we certainly invite everyone to come to the Island in Marathon at six o’clock and just hang out with us, go over the rules, just meet and greet some of the other anglers. Then, of course, Saturday is fishing for cause. Lines in at 7:30, lines out at 3:30 and then our weigh in and the awards banquet are all taking place at the Marathon Yacht Club this year. It’s an angler tournament. It’s also fun, because we have four divisions. We’ve got the lady division, we have junior, we have weekend warrior and our pro division. So we have boats that go out, just a family and a couple of people want to fish the tournament, a couple of others don’t and it’s fine. The angler fee is a donation to Habitat. So it’s just a great time.”
There are prizes for each of the four divisions – up to $2,000 for the pro division.
Young said, “We have first through third prizes in every division.”
There is still time to enter the tournament.
Young said, “We allow people to register up and to the captain’s meeting. So seven o’clock on Friday the 9th would be the cut off. We do have to get everything ready. We’ve got amazing swag for the anglers, we have angler buckets that come with all kinds of goodies from land and sea and so many organizations donate such great goodies for the angler buckets. The buckets themselves are a prize.”
How does Habitat help the people in the Middle Keys?
Young said, “Our mission is creating affordable homeownership in the Middle Keys. Everything that we raise at this tournament is going to go directly into the building costs of our next build, which is on 100 and Fifth Street. It’s a duplex. I’ve been in this position for 14 years now, and we’ve done 42 homes in the Middle Keys, and I’ve watched families, they go from paycheck to paycheck, barely surviving to thriving as a part of our amazing community. So the work that we do is very impactful for all of us. For us to live here, we need all of these amazing neighbors, to stay here and plant their roots. We always say Habitat is the foundation of the community, just like mangroves. You have to have mangroves to strengthen the shoreline and its habitants. That’s basically what Habitat does. So I like to put it in perspective in that sense.”
Habitat also has the Restore in the heart of Marathon.
Young said, “That’s my baby. We’re very, very proud of our Restore. It was a vision that Jill Bell and I, she was our volunteer coordinator and previous board president, kind of dreamt up six years ago, and it took a long time to get there, and with our last build of eight homes, which was our largest, amazing, those homes with the Restore considered Bell Haven, our largest build in the history of the organization. The restore is located on 79th Street. Crazy question I get is people ask, can anybody go in and shop? Yes, most definitely, we have everything from light bulbs to furniture to silverware to decor, building supplies, windows, anything you can imagine is in that beautiful store. We are only open right now four days a week, Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays, from 11 to 6 and then on Saturdays, from 8am to 3pm, just due to not having much staff, we can only be open so many days. What a labor of love it took and we did it start to finish from 2020 to 2024. We are very grateful. I know the community outpouring has been so happy that it’s there. People are finding things. We have what everybody needed.”
Donations are always welcome.
Young said, “We fundraise constantly for our homes. Everything we make at the Restore, everything we make at our tournaments, every donation, every dollar that we get as a donation, helps us build more homes in Marathon. Thank you to everyone who supports us and I just hope everybody comes out to fish.”
For more information, click here: https://habitatmiddlekeys.org/dolphin-tournament/