Despite 14 Stitches And A Black Eye, Jimmy Carter Helps Build Habitat For Humanity Homes In Tennessee

October 9, 2019

Despite taking a fall on Sunday at his home in Georgia and getting more than a dozen stitches, former President Jimmy Carter made it to the opening ceremony of a Habitat for Humanity event in Nashville, Tennessee, later that day.

Carter, 95, needed 14 stitches above his brow after falling in his home early Sunday. But the oldest living U.S. president didn’t let the injury keep him from a week of volunteer work in Nashville.

"I fell down and hit my forehead on a sharp edge and had to go to the hospital. And they took 14 stitches in my forehead and my eye is black, as you've noticed," he said. "But I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses."

Funds raised by the Carter Work Project will allow an additional 12 new single-family homes and 26 new townhomes to be built by the nonprofit by 2021.

Carter and his wife have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity for 35 years, building homes all over the United States and around the world.