Spencer Frye came to Athens as a college student. Twenty-five years later, he's running for State House to represent the district.

In the meantime, he's been a small business owner, a construction manager, and a non-profit executive.

He has taught English in Haiti, helped to export American ambulances overseas, and co-founded Envirotech, a company that began by recapturing recyclable oil and which now operates globally.

But in 1999, Spencer felt called to begin working with Habitat for Humanity, to serve his home town by helping to provide more opportunities for his neighbors to work for a better standard of living, while improving the quality of life for everyone.

After managing the construction program with Habitat for 7 years, Spencer assumed the responsibilities of executive director. Under his leadership, the Re-Store has doubled its sales, while Habitat has expanded its services to include installing handicap ramps, and providing emergency home repair and low-impact whole house recycling.

As a business owner and as executive director, Spencer Frye has met and worked with folks from all over the community, and successfully balanced the interests of citizens, private enterprise, and government.

His wife Gretchen is an emergency room nurse at Athens Regional, and his kids attend school right here in the district he wants to represent.

An entrepreneur at heart, Spencer is optimistic about the future, about what can be accomplished with the right vision and a little shoe leather. That's why he's a co-founder of Create Athens, a professional group working to make the arts even more enriching for the city and the region.

And that's why Spencer founded a program which uses the successful Habitat model to renovate neglected duplexes and apartments, which can then be rented affordably to working families.

And that's why he's working to become your representative. To make government more responsive, more efficient, more sensible. Because to get things done, it takes good ideas, solid planning, and someone who cares enough to see the project through.