Building for More Than Birds

Amy Kovach has been competing in the Birdhouse Challenge for 5 years. This year her Baltimore Inner Harbor Lighthouse-inspired Birdhouse, sold for $1,600.

Her engagement is clearly about more than just building birdhouses for birds. Building birdhouses has built a great bond between Amy and her dad, Rick Kovach. Amy says that participating has been “a great bonding activity for her and her dad’. But building a bond with her dad was not the original goal of participating. What started as Amy needed volunteer hours to join her school’s national honors society, has become much more. 

The Kovach’s participation in the Birdhouse Challenge has been monumental, to say the least. Their participation has raised significant funds for Habitat for Humanity. Since 2017, Amy and her dad have raised over $9,000 for Habitat for Humanity, and received the highest bid of all time, at $5,900 for their Mickie and Mini Love Bird Houses in 2018.

Over the years,  Amy and her dad have created several Disney themed birdhouse, which have received very generous bids at the Birdhouse Challenge. Perhaps with the Disney-themed birdhouses’ success, we may see more of Amy and her Disney Magic at the Birdhouse Challenge in April of 2023.

As a recent high school graduate Amy plans to attend Shippensburg University in the Fall for elementary education, but her exciting new journey won’t stop her from continuing old traditions. Amy said “I will be competing next year and we already have plans for next year’s Birdhouse.”

Amy isn’t the only one preparing for next year’s Birdhouse Challenge. The Committee Chair, Cheryl Takach and the other members of the committee are already hard at work planning for the Spring. If you’re interested in participating please contact Ashley Abbey, aabbey@habitatberks.org or call (610) 373-3439.