President Jimmy Carter is one of the featured speakers at the Legacy Build in honor of Millard and Linda Fuller in Valley, Ala., Sunday. Carter called his work with Fuller in Habitat for Humanity ‘one of the best things to happen in my life.’
Millard Fuller, a native of adjoining Lanett, had begun planning the build less than a year ago before his unexpected death in February.
“He thought up the idea to build 100 houses to celebrate our anniversary,” Linda Fuller said. “I said, ‘Well, I really was thinking more about a cruise.’ But he had the right idea, as he usually did.”
A cruise would have been atypical for the couple, who gave away everything they had to start Habitat for Humanity in 1977 and later, the Fuller Center for Housing.
Morris Dees, Millard Fuller’s Montgomery business partner who later became a civil rights leader, told those at the kickoff that for the first few years of Habitat’s formation, he would donate Fuller’s salary to charities at Fuller’s direction.
“He died the richest man on the face of the earth,” Dees said.
Between Habitat and the Fuller Center, more than 300,000 houses have been built across the United States and a number of foreign countries.
For the legacy build, 10 houses in the Congo - the first of the 100 - already were dedicated two weeks ago. More builds are going on in other countries and around the United States. In Lanett, volunteers will build six houses and refurbish or repair eight more. The Chattahoochee Fuller Center, which includes West Point, was one of the first Fuller Center covenant partnerships to form and several builds already have made possible 18 houses in formerly blighted areas of West Point, Lanett and Valley.
Linda Fuller took time to individually thank each speaker and those involved with the kickoff, especially President Jimmy Carter. The Fullers and the Carters had been partners in Habitat for Humanity for years. Linda Fuller said the two couples got to work together for a week each year during Habitat’s Jimmy Carter Work Projects.
“Those were the wonder years,” she said.
One of Millard Fuller’s last phone calls was to Carter, and the former president promised to come help kick off the legacy build.
“When Millard passed away, you never wavered about coming here and that meant the world to me,” she said. “My heart is full today.”
Carter said he met with the Fullers shortly after “being forcibly retired from the White House.” He had no plans to volunteer and figured he’d spend his days licking his wounds and writing a book. When he and his wife, Rosalyn, went to meet with the Fullers, “I said, ‘I’ve heard about these folks. Don’t agree to anything,’ ” Carter said to peals of laughter. Three hours after their first meeting, the Carters were official Habitat volunteers.
“It was one of the best things to happen to me in my life,” Carter said. “It was a dream no one thought could be realized.”
The build kickoff was a homecoming for the Fullers and their friends and included video tributes to the couple with Fuller’s own words from interviews before his death. Those at the kickoff also got to see the first trailer of a movie, “The Call to Action,” based on the Fuller’s formation of Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center. Millard Fuller’s last surviving sibling, his brother Doyle, gave a special thanks to the community that raised him and Millard Fuller.
“This village taught us there was more to being a Christian than just going to church and taking someone with you,” Doyle Fuller said. “These good people and this community led us to the Millard Fuller we know today. Without the life lessons we learned in this town, there would be no Habitat for Humanity and no Fuller Center. There would be 300,000 less decent houses in the world and 2 million less people living in decent housing. This is the first place our cup was filled up with what life is about.”
Dees recounted his life with Fuller.
“I’ve been fortunate in my life to meet most of the biggest people of my generation,” he said. “Millard was a giant who walked among us.”
As the volunteers travel around the Lanett and Valley area this weekend, they will be driving on what has been or will be named Millard Fuller Memorial Highway. Susan Ferguson, a LaGrange civic leader who was one of Fuller’s original employees in his law office, announced at the kickoff that state Rep. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, will introduce a bill in the next session of the General Assembly to name U.S. 29 from La-Grange to West Point and the Georgia-Alabama line “Millard Fuller Memorial Highway.”
She also read a resolution from Alabama legislators who already have named U.S. 29 from the Georgia-Alabama line to Interstate 85 for Fuller.
“I can’t think of a better way to honor him, and I know he’d be beaming and blushing in heaven because he wouldn’t want the attention,” she said.
David Snell, Fuller Center president, said the Fuller Center has expanded to have partner organizations in 26 states and 14 countries.
“We go only where we’re called, and I’ve noticed we’ve gone to places that are at war, or recovering from war or on the brink of war,” he said. “These places are being torn apart. I like to think we have a ministry of peace.”
Snell said Fuller’s dream, to end poverty housing, lives on.
“We are the hands and feet that will make that dream a reality,” he said.
Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.
Post a Comment
