Habitat for Humanity event gets boost from local celebrity

On Friday, the Habitat for Humanity Restore held an Evening in the Garden at the Pinehurst Nursery in Pocatello.

Aimed at raising funds for the Habitat’s 13th home build, the event featured a catered dinner and silent auction which brought out a larger than anticipated crowd.

“A lot more people than we thought, yeah, absolutely so we’re very pleased with the turnout,” store manager Kaite Counts explained.

Before the event, Counts set a goal of $5,000 that she hoped to hit during the evening.

“We’re always hopeful that we’ll hit our goals and we know that the community has always been great at taking care of us and so either way, we will eventually come to that goal and still move on with the home,” she said.

Many items were up for bid, including a couple’s night, a signed Blake Shelton CD and a dresser, but the thing that seemed to be getting the most attention was Pocatello native and Discovery Channel star Jeff Zausch.

“I love supporting the community, I’m constantly involved in nonprofits whether its Habitat or others and so Habitat reached out to me a couple months ago and asked if I’d be interested,” Zausch explained, “I said absolutely, as long as I’m in the country I’m here.”

On Friday, people got a chance to meet him and bid on a trip to learn survival skills with him.

Counts believes he’s been a big help to the entire event.

“He’s brought so much awareness to our whole event and so I think, without him, we would have probably not had as much of a big event,” she explained.

At the end of the night, the event fell short of its goal, but the home is still going to be built.

“Absolutely, as soon as the weather clears up a little bit, we will be laying the foundation and get it up as quick as we can,” Counts said.