I arrived at the Habitat for Humanity site Wednesday morning and saw Joan, a smiling volunteer who is ready to get me outfitted with my steel toed shoes, hard hat, protective glasses and gloves.
I feel like a construction hero ready to grab a hammer, drill – whatever they can throw at me. I am one several volunteers at the Habitat for Humanity construction site on Runnymede Road.
My colleague and friend Carolyn Mackenzie also volunteered Wednesday to be a part of the incredible Habitat for Humanity volunteer team.
This home is being built for a woman I consider to be super Mom: Tanya Costa. She is a mother of 12 beautiful children – some of whom have special needs. Tanya is also ill and suffers from a brain tumor. Despite her illness she is at every child’s school, appointment, event on time and manages to feed everyone a home cooked meal.
She also comes out to the site of her new home, every week, to help build her family’s future abode. Tanya was my inspiration.
So with my gear on I was ready to tackle anything and everything. With my building partner Hugh by my side, we did everything from drilling, hammering, putting up porch posts, and taking down a porch ceiling. It was incredible. I was actually helping to build a home.
But I was not alone: about 20 volunteers came out to build what I call an ARK – Act of Random Kindness. They all had something to offer from knowledge of a particular construction trade to a huge level of enthusiasm to learn.
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Each group worked beautifully together like a well oiled machine – it was truly inspiring. My fondest moment from, aside from meeting Tanya, was hammering in that last nail in a porch post that Hugh and I helped to enforce.
I was part of something big, and so incredibly cool that I cannot wait until the next time I can build an ARK.
Habitat for Humanity is always looking for volunteers. Everyone is welcome to volunteer but if you have a construction specialty, that’s even better. You can email Habitat for Humanity at Volunteer@habitatgta.ca for more information.
Thank you Habitat for Humanity – I cannot wait to build with you again.
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