IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Carter Habitat for Humanity
By Catherine M. Odell
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) — Although stormy skies often
interrupted the hammering and sent volunteers ducking for tents, a Habitat for
Humanity event in Indiana pulled together almost 2,000 volunteers, generous
contributions, celebrities and faith groups.
Former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, both in their 90s, were in
Mishawaka helping to build 23 single-family houses during the last week of
August. This year’s “Jimmy
& Rosalynn Carter Work Project” was awarded to St. Joseph
County in northern Indiana and the Carters’ special project was to build a
porch for one of the houses.
“We
want to help the houses look like they’re part of a real neighborhood,”
said Habitat volunteer Paul Kil, who led a team from St. Therese Little Flower
Church in South Bend that was landscaping and laying sod at the Carter site.
Kil, who grew up in a family that built its own house, said his own carpentry
skills are home-grown, but he’s impressed with the training Habitat offers volunteers
who come with minimal or no carpentry skills.
At an Aug.
26 opening ceremony for the building project, Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins,
president of the University of Notre Dame, said he was proud that Notre Dame’s
student Habitat chapter is one of the largest in the country.
The
Carters were longtime friends of the late Holy Cross Father Theodore M.
Hesburgh, who was Notre Dame’s president from 1952 to 1987, Father Jenkins said.
Late-night
talk show host and Indianapolis native David Letterman introduced the Carters
and joked that while his enthusiasm for Habitat is huge, his building skills
are limited. “What I quickly learned is that the only thing I can do is
hammer. … If there’s a Hammering Hall of Fame, get me in!”
Letterman
has been a Habitat volunteer and patron since he watched the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He wondered what he could do and Habitat became his
answer, he said.
Jimmy Carter
told the crowd: “Habitat is not a sacrifice for us. We sometimes get too
hot or too cold or work overtime. But, we always feel that we’ve gotten more
out of this than we put in.”
He also
said it brings hope, noting that he was pleased that he and Rosalynn have drawn
international attention to the need for affordable housing since they began
working with the organization in 1984.
“Because
of Habitat for Humanity … every 50 seconds, a family somewhere in the world is
getting a new or improved home,” the former U.S. president said.
Benito
and Junixha Salazar were among the 23 families working on the homes going up in
Mishawaka.
Like
all Habitat “partner families,” the Salazars were helping to pay for
their home through sweat equity — 250 hours of volunteer work. They are also
attending Habitat-mandated partner family classes on budgeting and home
maintenance. Habitat’s partner families get zero-interest home loans.
Habitat
involvement has bolstered their faith, said the Salazars, who will live in
their single-story house with 4-year-old Isabelle and 2-year-old Benito Jr.
Benito,
a Catholic, became a forklift operator to make more money before Isabelle was
born, but that meant leaving a job he loved at La Casa de Amistad, a community center
serving immigrants in South Bend. Junixha is a social worker who attends a
Seventh-day Adventist church.
Working
full time and having small children made it tough to attend weekly classes and
get the required service hours done, but recently he saw the payoff, Benito
said. His new neighborhood was becoming a loving community even before its
families moved in. “I help build my neighbor’s garage or put trim on the
house. We don’t just work on our own houses. We work on everybody’s houses.”
This Habitat
trademark of generosity and community has drawn many volunteers across St.
Joseph County.
Jane
Pitz, a former religious sister for 32 years, who worked in campus ministry at
Notre Dame, could be enjoying a lazy retirement but instead she leads a Habitat
Women Build project in St. Joseph County and fundraises for the organization.
A Jimmy
Carter quote about the demands of the Gospel and Habitat’s mission echoes her
own belief and that of many Habitat volunteers.
She
said, Carter believes: “If you are a person of faith … you learn certain
basic lessons about truth, justice, love and sharing that shape your life”
and through Habitat for Humanity you find a way to “reach out to fellow
humans who don’t have a decent place in which to live.”
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