This week the house in Columbia Heights was bathed in summer sunlight. The roof on the garage has been completed and garage soffit has been installed. The day I visited, volunteers were installing fascia and siding on the house and by the end of the week the basement floor was ready for concrete to be poured.
Kelly McCone is the new AmeriCorps member assisting Site Supervisor Anna Morrison. Kelly is a native of Superior, Wisconsin but comes to this assignment by way of Chicago. They were joined by an amazing group of volunteers.
Randa is a first time volunteer who learned about Habitat for Humanity volunteer opportunities after doing an internet search. Finding herself unemployed, she decided to volunteer while between jobs. She counts factory work in a Detroit Ford Motor plant among her previous experiences, but measuring, cutting, and drilling are all new to her.
Suzanne, Amy, and Sarah are neighbors who have been volunteering together for three years- carpooling to each build. After locating studs they installed LP SmartSiding on the front and sides of the house using a nail gun.
Star is a recently retired international businesswoman who enjoys an active lifestyle. Her previous experience with Habitat for Humanity took her to Zambia where she helped build small one or two room houses from bricks made on the site. She noted that building modern houses in the United States calls for some different skills - like applying siding.
Special thanks to Nancy Conley and her Kyde's Construction Team Leader day crew.
In his book Working (1972) author Studs Terkel interviewed a man who had worked his whole life as a stone mason and described his work this way: “All my work is set right out there in the open and I can look at it as I go by. It’s something I can see for the rest of my life.” As a person who works with words and ideas, I have always been impressed with the permanence that the stone mason attached to his work. So I asked the veteran volunteers whether they had ever returned to the site of their labors with Habitat for Humanity later to review their work. None of them had although Sally takes pictures to show to her friends and family.
A short talk with Phyllis, who has worked on many Habitat projects, convinced me that I had been asking the wrong question. She said that helping to give a family a home was much more important to her than the physical structure. This week she spent her time putting on siding and drywall so that another family could have a home.
Lenore Harmon
Habitat for Humanity Volunteer
P.S. – If you would like to see the work that Women Build volunteers did over the summer, and celebrate with the families who put in hundreds of sweat equity hours into their homes, please join us on Thursday, October 27th at 6:00 p.m. as we dedicate both of the 2011 Women Build homes. The joint dedication celebration will take place at: 836 Deppe Street, West St. Paul.
matt haugen : 7:45 AM on August 10, 2011
matt haugen