Women Build 2012 North Minneapolis home week 5

The news of the week was the weather - ranging from intense heat to drenching rain with thunder and lightning. On the day I visited I sat in my car for 15 minutes to wait out the rain. All of the members of the Valspar team were inside the house. As soon as the rain slowed to a drizzle about a dozen women in hard hats rushed out of the house and went back to their work.

Valspar’s Team Leader for the day was Tracy Trembley, a member of the Women Build Committee. She introduced me to Kate Houst, a web site designer for Valspar. In addition to working on site for the day, Kate designed the 2012 Women Build t-shirts. Volunteers are proud to wear her creation as they work. The front shows three women in hard hats holding tools and the back lists major sponsors. Volunteer for a day this summer and receive a shirt for your collection.

I talked to other women from Valspar who worked in HR, IT, and corporate travel. When I asked Tracy how the volunteers were recruited at Valspar she told me that an invitation goes out for women to sign up to work. If there are more than enough volunteers for one day, Valspar just sponsors another day. On this day they also provided lunch. Valspar’s corporate headquarters are here in the Twin Cities but they provide paint for all Habitat for Humanity projects, nationally and internationally.

Wells Fargo also sent a team of Women Bankers to work last week and provided lunch for everyone on site. Special thanks to Cecil’s Deli, Be’Wiched Deli and Rachel Knutson with the participants from the Shamrock School of Irish Step Dance for providing lunch the on other three days. As you shop for products and services, please support Women Build sponsors and let them know that you appreciate their partnership with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

Lenore Harmon
Women Build Committee Member

P.S. – We still have a great need for volunteers this summer... If you would like to help us build, please visit VolunteerHub to sign up for a day or two. And, visit the Women Build Facebook page to see or add more photos.