Habitat for Humanity
Bill Hoover started volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in 1992 when he lived in California. Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization and Bill has worked in numerous countries around the world.
“I’ve worked in the Philippeans, in Hungary, in Portugal and I’ve worked all over the U.S., Taos, New Mexico, Appalachia, Houston, South Dakota, L.A, and there are some more that I can’t remember.”
He said that his favorite location was in New Mexico.
“Taos, New Mexico because you build adobe houses there, so it’s totally different than any of this construction. They’re made out of mud bricks. Southwest houses are traditionally made with mud and straw bricks and that’s how they make modern adobe houses and that’s what Taos habitat still does today.’’
Bill said that he is grateful for this opportunity to help others and can’t help but feel blessed when he comes back to his life in the United States after building in a third world country.
“As an affluent American you can’t come away from one of these third world countries and not feel like you are really blessed. It’s just hard to realize how humble some of these situations are. That’s the main message I get everytime I do that.”
He was not retired when he started volunteering 27 years ago; he is a scientist by training but learned quickly how to build houses and do carpenter work. Bill also had a family he needed to attend to. He found out about Habitat through his church.
“No I was still working at the time. Yeah, plus a family. It’s understandable why most of the volunteers are retirees because you are doing a full time job and being a father as well, there isn’t a lot of time. Once I got hooked I tried to spend one week a year doing habitat. I didn’t volunteer on a regular basis during the month. Now I work every Wednesday and many Saturdays; it depends on what they need. But, I’m retired, I don’t have those time restraints.”
“There’s some church groups support it but there’s companies that support it and there’s individuals that support it so it’s not solely supported by church groups. There’s 15,000 affiliates, or something like that, and habitat’s built like 2 million houses. I mean it’s a huge international organization.’’
Bill was able to travel and build houses in other countries through the one week build period that was sponsored by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife.
“They were building a bunch of houses in a one week period and I applied to be part of the team and got accepted. Former President, Jimmy Carter, and his wife, once a year sponsor a one week build, somewhere in the world, they build houses from beginning to end in a week and that was a Carter build. I’ve been on a number of those, which is an amazing experience to go somewhere on Monday morning, it’s a flat foundation, and the family moves in on Saturday.”
Bob Patton started volunteering occasionally for Habitat once he retired but regularly since 2000.
“I’ve been with habitat as a regular volunteer, or what we call habituals, since 2000. Before that I worked occasionally for them after I retired. Being a regular means that I come at least once a week sometimes twice a week and when we are actually doing the framing of a house, I’m here for a full week. Usually there’s at least four framing weeks during the year.”
The group that works together on Wednesday’s have been working together for about ten years. The volunteers do everything besides plumbing in the house.
“We have a great group of people to work with. We have a lot of fun. It’s a constant learning experience because we have people with all levels of skills so that somebody who has never done it comes in we will teach them and they become good carpenters, goog drywallers, good painters and so on. The real benefits of working with people who have the same heart for others and learning skills from some really great people who have a lot of skills.”
Bob was inspired to start volunteering when he retired and wanted to give back and serve others.
What inspired you to start?
“Well I had retired and I wanted to continue doing thi ngs and I’m very involved with our mission community at church and the mission that we’re doing as far as serving others. In fact after I leave here I’m going to take some stuff down to the homeless shelter. My wife and I, that’s how we feel we have to give back and help others that don’t have the same benefits we do.”
He looks forward to the house blessings and closings after a house is built.
“For me the most rewarding part is when we have our house closing and help blessing. When the owner will close on the house in the morning and then in the afternoon we’ll have a house blessing and they are so excited to have their house. Their children come and claim their bedrooms and it’s just such a[n] exciting time to actually have a home. Most of homeowners who are living in apartments and moving from apartment to apartment and in most cases their house payment is significantly less than what they have been paying for rent and they’re building equity for their future.”
Brian O’Malley started volunteering in January and is coming up on his second year. He has worked on about 20 different houses so far and has experience in construction.
“I had a lot of experience over the years in construction and construction management so it was natural for me to be attracted to this organization and what they do.”
Brian is the new guy to the team and after he retired he was told to look into Habitat for Humanity because it was something he may like to be involved in and now he is really close to all of the other guys.
“It’s really a great bunch of folks and you know everybody is pulling in the same direction. What is there more concrete that you can do than build a house? It gives back instant results, although it takes a lot of patience. Patience with the process and patience with each other and you have to learn a lot. I had a ton of experience in commercial and residential construction renovation, and I still had a lot to learn. You have to learn the Habitat system and the designs of the individual houses, but mostly you have to learn about the people you are working with. That is really the most important thing; figure out how to fit in in the best way and so forth.”
One memory that stands out to him is on build days.
“It’s always great on build days when we have big groups of volunteers and houses are being framed. To watch when a wall gets lifted, that’s really cool. There’s 10 or 12 people along the line and everybody, you build the walls flat on the deck, and then the walls get tipped up. That’s always a great day and that is a great image. I see it in my mind when I’m thinking about Habitat.”
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