Engage

By Andrew Duback, volunteer from Oakton Community College

Arriving in Loveland, I had much to expect from a place so different from my home in Chicago. I was amazed at how clean and beautiful the town looked as we drove in after 16 hours on the road.

The mountains were beautiful and the sun shone brightly. On Memorial Day, we didn’t work and took the day to do a hike on the Rocky Mountain National Park trail. I felt so blessed to be able to see the beauty of this trail, much like I had hoped to see in Colorado.

My eyes were enjoying the beauty of the state but my hands had not yet done any work. On our first day of work at the Loveland Habitat construction site, I was eager to start and feeling great. I was already falling in love with Loveland and my Habitat work group from college.

First Presbyterian Church in Kearney, NE traveled with a group of 8 volunteers to Loveland, CO at the end of May to build with our affiliate. Joining them was another volunteer from Vail, Colorado, son to the team leaders, to experience build opportunities in this area for families in need. Kay Payne, one of the team leaders, served on the Habitat board in Kearney for many years. She and her husband, Rodger, have also traveled to build with other affiliates as part of the RV Care-A-Vanners program. Kelsey C., a youth member of the church, shares her experience of building with our affiliate:

“This was my first mission trip by myself and my first time coming to Colorado so I was pretty excited to see what’d we be doing. Teaming up with Habitat was a great experience; we got to meet and connect with the people and help with the houses being built. It was also cool to go into someone’s Habitat home and hear how they’ve grown and changed through their experience with Habitat. Overall it’s been an inspiring trip.”

It was nearly five years ago that I decided I wasn’t having enough fun! I had retired from my high school teaching career several years earlier, and while I enjoyed spending time with my husband and family, traveling, bicycling, gardening with no set schedule, I kept feeling like I could be doing something more in my life.

Then one day I was chatting with some women in my neighborhood who had worked for Habitat for Humanity in another city. They recalled how they threw a “stud party” for a Habitat home. People came to the site and made small monetary donations to paint on construction studs for the newly framed house. The artwork and messages they left were diverse—affection for the new home owners, Bible passages, congratulations, advice, good wishes and hopes for the future.