Habitat for Humanity Update

On a beautiful autumn morning, October 5^th to be exact, a number of fellow UUs gathered in North Champaign for the second and final Habitat UU volunteer work day  for 2013 (a third one was cancelled). Christine Cahill, Elaine Gehrmann, Elaine Harrington, Lynn Kelly, Jared Lofrano, Sarah McDougal, Michael Peirson, Andy Robinson, Sue Searing, Dave Sutton, Steve Troyer, and Lynn Wiley worked at the Mary Belford home to continue the work of many before them. This home is almost finished, so we got to see some great handiwork and envision the lovely home that this will be for Mary and her family.

Mary was there, of course, to help as were a number of UI students and other Habitat staff and volunteers. We painted, installed small fixtures, hung doors, cleaned, and planted a lot of shrubs, fall flowers and ornamentals, as well as raked away gravel, hauled rocks, and washed windows. We also got to know each other and swapped life stories, as well as tips on home repair and work on other projects.

UU volunteers have helped with many homes in the past and hopefully will help with many more in the future. Kim, the site coordinator, talked about the homes being framed now and new grants that recently came in to support more work. At our church, we are fortunate to have Jim and Sandy Hannum, who have both done a lot to get us started on these rewarding projects, along with Nancy Dietrich, who is now helping to coordinate that work with Habitat. 

If ever you have any questions about the work, please contact someone in the Social Action Committee or even any volunteer, especially if you’d like to help with some of the background work. These homes make a great difference to the lives of their new owners but there’s always more to do. The work is not too complicated and many hands make it easy and fun.