For our 24th sponsored Habitat build, a family’s generous gift provided the opportunity for Raise the Roof, the Shoreline Habitat connection and community build organization within Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven, to bring the work of its Habitat mission back to where it all began. Raise the Roof got its start in 2003 as a small grassroots organization called Madison Cares. Over time, as kind, generous individuals, organizations, and businesses from surrounding Shoreline towns began to step up to help, a new name was needed. From the organizational foundation laid in Madison, “Raise the Roof” has steadily grown into a Shoreline community of support and volunteers from Branford, Guilford, Madison, Clinton, and Killingworth, helping families build and own Habitat homes for 23 years. Prior to this 24th Habitat build, the 23 houses that the Raise the Roof community sponsored, helped to build, and completed were in New Haven. The gift of a building lot at 24 Old Schoolhouse Road in Madison brought building a home and raising a roof back to where the idea of being community that builds was conceived.

Kent Allen grew up in Madison, an experience that gave him wonderful memories. From his bedroom window in his family home, he remembers looking out on one of his favorite views ever of the land that today is 24 Old Schoolhouse Road. Kent’s parents worked to gift their children with land on which to one day build their own homes, and 24 Old Schoolhouse Road was the gift that was passed on to him and his wife Susan.

As life unfolded, the careers of Kent and Susan took them to places other than Madison, and they, along with their children, made a family decision to make a gift of the land rather than sell. In their words, “The decision to give the land away came from a place of depth. It has felt more like a calling. Somehow, the idea that the land was a commodity that could be traded didn’t sit right. We have been the recipients of incredible generosity and kindness. We have felt the power of home and the grounding of the land. It is our turn to help provide those same gifts to another.”