Hazel Spain receives Habitat lifetime achievement award

By: ALLEN MINCEY

August 12, 2026

“When I think of Hazel, the word that comes to mind is pillar. She's a pillar of this organization, and a true testament to all of the little things that add up to make a huge impact.”

Those comments were from David Gray, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland, and though they were meant to point out how special Hazel Spain is to the local organization, anyone who knows her couldn’t avoid thinking of her physical stature.

“When I was first met by this little, short, tiny Hazel with a fierce personality … fiery, like a little stick of dynamite,” remembered LaManda Bowers, director of the Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland ReStore.

Spain admits that she is quite petite, but don’t let her size fool you – she works as hard as anyone that towers over her … or anyone who is younger than her too.

“I will be 96 in December … December 5th,” Spain proudly stated.

And while she has received accolades locally for the time she has put in at Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland, she now can say she had been recognized statewide, as Habitat for Humanity of Tennessee recently presented her with the Habitat for Humanity of Tennessee State Impact Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The award was presented at the state conference in Smyrna.

“It was a total surprise. Ginger [Shaffer] drove us over and didn’t say a word about it,” Spain smiled. Shaffer is a volunteer co-worker at the Habitat ReStore.

Gray said Spain was so humble in accepting the award.

“She made the greatest statement. She closed [her acceptance] by saying ‘so this is a room full of Habitat leaders from all across the state. I don’t really deserve this. You do. Everybody in this room does.”

Spain never has been one to seek the spotlight, and always points to others who volunteer their time to helping those in need. She also comes across as a mother figure to those men and women who work on the Habitat homes and within the ReStore.

How the Louisiana girl who grew up in “the little, bitty town of Blanchard” got to Cleveland and eventually connected with Habitat is quite the story.

“I guess you could say I took the long way around the world,” Spain said.

She and her husband lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, until his death, and then she lived with her daughter and her family, and moved with them when they got jobs in Hawaii.

“I’d say I had a wonderful vacation … a two-year vacation in Hawaii,” Spain joked.

Her daughter and son-in-law then found out there were teaching positions in Bangladesh “and they wanted me to go, and I had planned to go … but at the last minute, I thought to myself, I am about to be 70 years old and anything could happen, and I didn’t know I was going to live to be 95.”

So instead of Bangladesh, Spain opted for a much more peaceful area to move to – Cleveland, Tennessee, where her son and his two little boys and twin girls lived.

“It was wonderful. All I had to do was sit on the couch and watch TV and drive around. I didn’t know anybody to ask me out to lunch. I didn’t have to buy presents for weddings and babies and everything else. It was great … for about two weeks,” she said.

“I thought, this is not what God made for me.”

Thirty years working in a steel foundry didn’t give her many similar options in Bradley County, so she decided to volunteer somewhere, but the only place she knew about was Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland because she knew some from Broad Street United Methodist Church involved with that organization.

The rest, as they say, is history … but what a history.

Spain started with Habitat at its first location, prior to its move to the old Cinema I and II location. In the midst of her first working at Habitat, she decided to purchase a digital camera. Once again, a history marker.

“I went to the Habitat office and said ‘look at my camera, Look here. I am so proud of my new camera,’ and I was told ‘you think you could take some pictures of some houses Habitat’s building,” Spain remembered. Those first houses she photographed are now a part of Sain Village, named for Bob Sain, a longtime Habitat volunteer.

“I started with house No. 49 and house No. 50, which were big deals because they had solar panels,” she said. In perspective, Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland is now in the process of building houses No. 175 and No. 176 in the Southgate Subdivision.

She was also given a box of photographs from previous home builds, and she became not only the photographer – the builders gave her the nickname “paparazzi” – but also created scrapbooks of all the home builds.

Though she isn’t out taking photographs like she did, Spain is still active at the Habitat ReStore. Possibly even more active than she had ever been.

She had always been involved in sorting through the books that were donated to Habitat, and tried to place them where they would be seen by shoppers. In 2019, all her hard work with the books led to the creation of the Hazel Spain Book Nook at the ReStore.

“We have customers that come in just to see Hazel at the Book Nook, and she takes such pride in the books,” Gray said. “You know, she’s very particular. She has it set up just a certain way to where it’s so organized. When you come in, you can find exactly what you want and just the care she puts in. She spends hours going through these books and putting the best ones out.”

Just because she will be 96 later this year, Spain doesn’t plan on slowing down … not as long as there are books to go through and prepare for her Book Nook.

And, she said when she hits 100, they can have another celebration. Those that know her said they have a feeling they might have to pull her away from working on books even then to celebrate.