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Habitat Hotel Featured on WVTF Public Radio

As students, alumni and parents of Washington and Lee know better than anyone, housing options can become scarce during Parents and Family Weekend. The Habitat Hotel program has become an important housing option — and a good way to serve an important cause.

The program, developed a half dozen years ago, asks Lexington residents and members of the W&L staff and faculty to turn their homes into bed and breakfasts for families of W&L students during the annual weekend. The guests then donate $150 per room to the Rockbridge Area Habitat for Humanity Chapter.

Habitat Hotel is the Washington and Lee Habitat Chapter’s most successful fund-raising effort each year. Junior Laura Beth Ellis, of Atlanta, led the project this fall.

Habitat Hotel has gained lots of steam in recent years, and the program received a big boost when Sandy Hausman, an award-winning reporter for WVTF Public Radio, in Roanoke, paid a visit earlier this month.

In interviews with former Dean of Students Lew John and his wife, Annette, who open their home to visitors; parent Sarah Scott Thomas, of New Orleans; and local Habitat official Emily King, Sandy spins a wonderful story about the project. Her piece also ran on the Virginia Public Radio network. Listen below: