Volunteering & Volunteer Students

On Thursday June 19 I individually volunteered for the Montgomery County Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. I flirted with the idea of heading straight for inner city Baltimore, but I used to live in a townhouse in Burtonsville, so I decided to commit myself there. Steph was the liaison, or coordinator, for the volunteers. After we signed a liability form, and checked in for the day, Steph gave a brief introduction to another young fellow who had volunteered before, and his younger sister who hadn't, and myself, on the current project the Montgomery Counter Chapter was undertaking as well as fundamental safety guidelines. All told, there was a little more than half dozen of us, including the crew leaders and the woman whom would be moving into the home we were working on.

Clearly printed on a sign attached to a stake stuck in the ground several inches in front of the lot I was working in, was the name of the family that was to move in to the home I was helping construct. A dark-skin woman with an intriguing accent of I think African descent, worked alongside the other volunteers throughout the day installing drywall on the second and third floors. Another gentlemen, Doug, was crew leader of this group. Initially we were in the wrong unit, and when we moved into the one to the right, the last in the row of townhouses, I had brought a bucket full of tools over with me, and this woman thanked me and affirmed that "this one was mine." It didn't occur to me until an hour or so later what she meant. It was her home we were helping to build.

Part of the eligibility for those enrolled in Habitat's housing program requires that the homeowners put in a designated number of hours of work. It was an enriching experience, and knowing that these townhouses are sold not for profit, to families that are granted interest free mortgages, enhanced the meaningfulness of what I was partaking in. I couldn't help but feel that in some small manner, I truly was making a positive difference.

From 8:30am to 3:00pm I was the sole underling of Bruce, a retired medical engineer who used to work for the National Institute of Health. Before and after our lunch break, we installed studs and crossbars on lot 56 at Linganore Lane, in Burtonsville Maryland. My responsibilities included measuring 2x4's for precise cuts, using a table saw to cut the wood, and lots of hammering, and prying out, nails, mostly by hand, but I did get to use a gas-pressured nail-gun when necessary.

I've had some non-professional experience, helping my father in areas of unfinished carpentry, as well as my uncle who is a retired finished carpenter, so I had no troubles with the workload. Even someone without any experience could do the same work that I did. Alternately, there are other jobs, which demand less physical strength, which anyone in good health and capable enough could do.

I would have to say that the highlight of my day was watching two small children play behind the town homes they lived in, which were located adjacent to the lots we were working on. Habitat completed those homes previously. It was fantastic not only to see what the unit I was working on would look like exteriorly when it was finished, but to see the young occupants who lived in homes volunteers like me helped build, engaging themselves in the youthful activities of play.