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I am very pleased to announce that my company will be building their 4th Habitat for Humanity House starting on September 25th.  Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty is dedicating the build to recently retired Habitat Executive Director Barbara Birkenheuer.  We will be building this home in downtown Wilmington on Corbett Street for a single working mom and her 11 year old daughter.  The new owner will be Carol Tyson, a Certified Nursing Assistant for the past 8 years at Britt haven of Wrightsville.  I have participated in the past with a Habitat Build and found it very rewarding; this year I chose to Chair the Committee to coordinate the labor force needed to pull off the build and will be on site digging footings, swinging hammers, and seeing it through to the end!

World Cup interesting facts; My friend Chris Dean, a Certified Financial Planner with Raymond James here in Wilmington sent this to me and I found it to be very interesting and wanted to share it with all of you.  Pls read on…

The Super Bowl may be the most riveting sporting event in the United States, but in much of the rest of the world, soccer – actual hands-off football – is the sport that glues the most people to their television or computer screens. Once every four years, the 32 national teams that survived qualifying rounds compete in group elimination matches that produce, eventually, two semi-final winners to play for the World Cup. This year, competition began in South Africa on June 11; it ends with the Cup match in Johannesburg on Sunday, July 11 – to be followed by wild, passionate celebrations in the cities of the winning nation. Count on it.

If you’re a fan, or your children or grandchildren are, expect some unfamiliar words and sounds to be coming your way when you tune in to the broadcasts. The host country’s team, nicknamed Bafana Bafana(is Zulu, meaning “the boys, the boys”), isn’t picked to duplicate the fairytale victory of the South African rugby team’s victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup – an event depicted in the recent film Invictus – but its fans are certain to make a lot of noise blowing brightly colored plastic trumpets called vuvuzelas (Zulu for “making noise”). The sound is a cross between the buzz of a huge swarm of angry bees and the bellow of a sick elephant – but it’s apparently inspirational.

The U.S. team qualified (ranked 11th worldwide, it is part of Group C, which also includes England, Slovenia and Algeria). Watch and you’ll be joining the world’s largest television audience, which some estimate may exceed 700 million for the Cup Final. (The most-watched Super Bowl game ever, this year’s New Orleans Saints’ victory over the Indianapolis Colts, drew a reported 106 million viewers domestically.)

Whether the World Cup grabs your attention or you’re caught up in the middle of the baseball season, expecting an engaging Wimbledon or patiently waiting for pre-season American- or Canadian-style hands-on football – I wish you good viewing of the sport of your choice as summer unfolds.