The Inland Empire is honoring late President Jimmy Carter.
Following Carter’s death on Sunday, Dec. 29, Habitat for Humanity branches and their ReStore sites across the Inland Empire and the country announced they would be putting up memorial walls and doors where the public can sign their names and leave personal messages.
The late president’s contributions “are among the most vital” to the organization, Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford said earlier this week. Carter got involved with Habitat for Humanity in 1984, “that put it on the map,” Reckford told The Associated Press. “It was a tiny organization and no one had ever seen a former president of United States sleeping in a church basement, physically working on rehabbing a tenement building” in New York City. … “That began this extraordinary 35-year run of building somewhere in the world every year. And everywhere he went, he raised up volunteers and supporters and advocates.”
In the Inland Empire, Pomona Valley Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity Riverside are welcoming people to their ReStore locations to pay tribute.
Memorial walls and doors are up through January at the two sites: Montclair ReStore, 4737 Holt Blvd., Montclair, and Riverside ReStore, 2180 Iowa Ave., Riverside.
On Friday morning, local leaders were to gather at the Riverside site to to sign the wall, according to a Habitat for Humanity Riverside release. And early Friday in Pomona, photos of the late president were going up on a collection of doors where the public could pay tribute.
While local Habitat for Humanity sites are honoring the late president through the month, at a post office in Corona there’s also a special tribute on display.
Leaders on Monday, Dec. 30, laid a wreath in Carter’s honor at the post office on Grand Boulevard, which opened during the Carter Administration.
The Corona Chamber of Commerce organized the event to recognize his role in the dedication of the office — the third in the city — as well as his volunteer efforts with Habitat for Humanity, a news release states. The post office includes a wall plaque with Carter’s name and its 1979 opening date.
The wreath ceremony included Dr. Anthony J. Pirritano, chair of the chamber’s board, Mayor Jim Steiner and Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel and other local and state officials.
Carter, the 39th president of the U.S., died Sunday, Dec. 29, at age 100 in Plains, Georgia, following nearly two years in hospice.
Habitat for Humanity also has an online memory book, where people are invited to share their memories and honor the late president. Find that at https://www.habitat.org/ap/node/56616.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
