On
a beautiful autumn morning, October 5th 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.