• Unemployed Volunteers Giving Back
• Habitat for Humanity House in Monroe involved student work
• Disabled mom eager to move into accessible Habitat home
• Habitat for Humanity's ‘Weekend Build' kicks off
• Wanted: Future homeowners
• Blitz Build to wrap up with home dedications
• Airport student incorporates work with Habitat into Eagle Scout project
• Blitz on in bid to build 3 new houses in 12 days
• Stepping up to help out
• Senior makes most of opportunity
• Students team up to build Habitat house

Stepping up to help out

by Dean Cousino, June 12. 2006 11:29AM

click here for this article @ www.MonroeNews.com

Jean Vander Horst was amazed at how fast a house can be built when many energetic people are at work.

"There was nothing on this lot yesterday - it was just a flat piece of ground," Mrs. Vander Horst, a Lambertville homemaker, said Sunday afternoon. "Today, it has pretty windows and sides going up. ... It just shows you that if enough people get together, they can put a house together in no time."

She and her husband, Paul, were among the almost 90 volunteers Sunday and 135 volunteers Saturday who joined in the Blitz Build for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that builds affordable housing for low-income families.

Three homes are going up in the blitz that began Saturday and will last until June 20. the end of summer, six new homes will be built by Habitat volunteers in the Monroe area.

Mr. and Mrs. Vander Horst worked on a 1,200-square-foot, four-bedroom house on Almyra Ave. that will become the new home for Hope Kanaley and her three children.

Mr. Vander Horst is employed as an electrician, so he is used to construction. Not so for Mrs. Vander Horst, a homemaker who helped with the blitz for the first time. She cut up blueboard to cover the sides of the home and found it not too challenging.

"Paul nailed it on. It was real light weight and easy to work with," said Mrs. Vander Horst, 48. "I like the way you get to see immediate results, the way it comes together."

Her husband is assistant pastor at the Petersburg Church of God Seventh Day Adventist, which had several members assisting. Many of the volunteers from the church and Church of Our Lord of Righteousness helped on Sunday to give other churchgoers a break.

"We give people who go to church on Sunday a break," explained Aurine Moore, wife of Charlie Moore, the pastor of Church of the Lord our Righteousness in Monroe, which, along with the Petersburg church, holds its services on Saturday.

The Rev. Moore has helped Habitat build homes for the past four years. He said many of the volunteers who come to a Blitz Build have little or no experience helping, which is okay because there are plenty of jobs to go around.

John and Sue Schott of Dundee are both school teachers. Mr. Schott, pastor of Petersburg Church of God and a Habitat build veteran, used a power drill to finish installing a vinyl double window on the front of the house while his wife held a ladder. He is wrapping up his year teaching seventh grade at Simpson Middle School in Flat Rock.

"I'm a teacher by trade, but using a drill is not hard for me," Mr. Schott, 57, said.

His wife, who teaches English at Dundee High School, volunteered for the first time. She put in insulation, secured the front doorway to blow in more insulation and did framing for the windows. She said it's interesting to watch the home come together.

The Schotts are learning a thing or two that they can use in designing the "dream home" they want to build this fall on the same site where they currently live. They also said were impressed with the camaraderie of the volunteers.

"The people we worked with are wonderful people," Mrs. Schott, 55, said. "Everybody has been cooperative."

On the inside, Monty Sisk and three other members from the Downriver Chapter of Credit Unions wore lime green T-shirts with the Habitat logo on them. Mr. Sisk, 32, lives in Rockwood, and his wife, Renae, is assistant manager at the Wy-South Federal Credit Union in Flat Rock. A designer in diamond rolls for the auto and aircraft industry, he helped hang 2-by-4s in the ceiling and installed a door. It's the first time the dozen credit unions in the chapter had sponsored one of the Habitat homes in Monroe.

"This has definitely been a good experience for us," Mr. Sisk said as he drilled a hole in the wall for hanging curtains. "We met the homeowner, and it makes you feel good to know the person we're building for."

With a hammer in her hand, Ms. Kanaley, 36, nailed some of the blueboard, taped insulation and swept the floor. She said she was "overwhelmed" by the outpouring of support from the volunteers.

"There are so many people working so hard, and they don't even know me," she said. "They never met me until today. It's unbelievable."

She is employed as a licensed practical nurse at Mercy Memorial Hospital and at a skilled nursing center in Trenton. She also is studying to obtain a bachelor's degree in nursing. She said her three children - ranging in age from 6 to 12 - are eager to move in because they each will have their own bedroom for the first time. She said she would like to help in the next Habitat build in August and September, when two more homes will be built over a six-week period as part of an "accelerated build."

"I'm just very grateful... I'm making so many friends," she said.

Two three-bedroom homes, both with 1,080 square feet, are also being built this week side by side on Norwood Dr. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is sponsoring one of the homes, and the other one is being built by all women for the third year in a row. Kathy Sherba will move into the women's build, and Scott and Mandi Lajiness will own the Thrivent house.

All three homes are "simple, decent, affordable and all beautiful," said Deborah Wykes, director of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County.

She hosted a group of Habitat organizers from Florida today seeking to gain advice on how to do a Blitz Build.

"We seem to have it down to a science," Mrs. Wykes said Sunday. "At least half of the volunteers have some experience now. Many take their vacations this week."

She added the latest build is on schedule.

"It's going great, and the weather has been (cool) enough so as not to wear the workers out."

Volunteers have endured all kinds of extreme weather conditions in the past.

"Last June, we had temperatures of 95 degrees or higher," she recalled. "We've been through thunderstorms and blistering heat. ... We just keep building."