Holiday Season

We're off for Christmas and the New Year. In the event that anyone was hoping for an update, I hope to post after the New Year when I return to Baton Rouge. A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Spring Build Season

I guess things are really ramping up.

This year Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge built about 20 houses in three parishes (including the 4 that were built during this last blitz). We really are trying to grow, because we are starting 20 houses in the first half of 2006.

March

• 1 Catholic Build (8 week)
• 2 Youth Build (3 week) - Valley Park/Wells St
• 1 Greek Build (1 week) - Cross Creek

April

• 1 Exxon/Mobil Build (4 week)
• 1 Thrivent Build (4 week) - Faith Court

May

• 4 West Side Build (1 week)
• 4 Buffini Build (1 week)

June

• 6 Home Builder Blitz (1 week)

If you add that all up, it should be 20. I'll edit this post as I learn the streets and locations of the builds. The good news is that we've been approved for more staff - so observant types should recognize that we have our work cut out for us. I don't mind mentioning that I'm more than a little afraid, but we've had a lot of willing support and I'm confident that we'll get more. I sure hope to see some of our new friends back...

Estelle Has a New House!

This past Saturday, we dedicated a house in Port Allen to Estelle Franklin and her family. The keys were presented to Estelle by a representative from the house sponsor, Entergy. It was rainy and cold and we tracked mud into her house all day, but I still think Estelle enjoyed it. It's still overwhelming to be present at such an event, but it's nice to see the end result - not just the house, but the owner's new home.

Estelle is the lady not wearing the Christmas hat.

Back to Fountain Drive

Fountain Drive is the home of our four houses from the blitz build. If I tell you a little secret, please don't spread it around - we didn't quite finish all of the houses. So, today a group of volunteers from Philip Morris, USA came as part of their Southwest Regional Manager's Meeting. They're having a three-day offsite/conference here in the lovely Red Stick and about forty of their sales force came to help us finish these houses on Fountain.

The cool part of today is that I had a Gwen & Naka moment. I led four separate siding teams (all at once) to finish the siding on two houses. Gwen & Naka were my two incredible task leaders in Kauai where I worked on a Global Village Build in September, and they're two of the reasons I came to do what I'm doing. I want to be like them when I grow up.

Anyway, about half of the group wanted to work on siding (who can blame them when we had painting to do inside?) I think I was successful bluffing my way through and letting them think I knew what I was talking about, and we finished the siding (and most of the soffit) on the remaining two houses! Thank you for the help!

(You really can't take photos of a build without taking one of someone using a miter saw...)

Oh, and I wasn't sure we were on Fountain until about 1:30 today, when it started raining. Then I knew we were back.

In the Media

I let my camera relax this week. However, we've been in the local media quite a bit and even made national news with Operation Home Delivery. Here are a few of the links:

[video]
Today show
WAFB

[print]
WBRZ News 2/The Advocate
WAFB

Leap Of Faith

You know, there are truly amazing people in this world. I had the pleasure of meeting one today, Seth Kujat. Seth has a mission, and it is to put a roof on at least one Habitat house in every state in our country in one year. He started earlier this year and just got to our state. Louisiana is his 33rd state and his 45th roof, or something pretty close to that.

Seth is someone you should meet. He's doing this on his own to motivate and inspire other people to achieve greater things. You can read about him on his website www.leapoffaithroofing.com.

Anyway, he completed the roof on our house in Port Allen and I got to work with him all day. Working with him, I had probably my best day at work so far. Heck, quitting my job to come do this doesn't even seem like much in comparison.

Seth set out to do this on his own, lives out of his van, brings his own tools and for someone so young, brings a lot of knowledge, experience and inspiration. I can only encourage anyone who is impressed by his quest to help his cause by donating to him. Seth has a passion and it is an inspiring sight to see.

Blitz Build Completed!

The blitz build ended on Saturday and it was an overwhelming success. What I mean by that was it was a) overwhelming and b) a success. For the week, we had a group of truly dedicated volunteers from all over our country. Volunteers from Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, North and South Carolina, Ohio and Louisiana (and probably one or two states that I missed) showed up to build four of the Operation Home Delivery Houses for victims of hurricane Katrina.

The conditions were not the most favorable: we received four houses, but some were a different floor plan than what we anticipated (most likely a shipping error, although the FedEx homes arrived just fine - go figure...) and we had a great deal of rain, which led to a greater amount of mud on the first few days of the build.

Despite this, we were able to provide Traemel Day with the keys to her house at a dedication ceremony on Saturday. Hopefully one day, she'll have a few neighbors.

During the build, one of the volunteers offered me some server space so I could publish more of my photos. If there seems to be interest in this, I'll probably do it.

On Friday night, I was invited to visit the out-of-town volunteers who were staying at the FEMA tents. It was impressive to see the facilities and rumors of the meals are legendary.

Thank you everyone who participated. You are all an inspiration to me. It was wonderful to meet the AmeriCorps from the other states (oh yeah, have I mentioned I'm an AmeriCorps?) as well as the volunteers who just felt the need to be here and help. I've learned a lot this week about how to build but I also learned that there are others committed to the same principles I've dedicated this year to, and that helps me a lot. Thank you.

Just a few candids of the volunteers for the week.There were many more, and I'll try to share those soon. I guess since it's my blog, you have to suffer a few photos of me - my mom likes to see them.