ABERDEEN, NC BUILD REPORT
by Corbett and Connie Pool
F140306, Build Team Leaders

From 9 October to 14 October 9 member coaches, with 18 people, participated in the building of Habitat for Humanity homes in Aberdeen, NC after the Greater Eastern Area (GEAR) Rally in Fayetteville, NC. Bob and Sylvia Hicks, F220497, served as assistant Build Team Leaders. Other participants included Lee and Nancy Arrowsmith, F199351; Doug and Shirley Choate, F186961; John and Carol Covert, F202121; Steve and Linda Christian, F179937, Bart and Holly Creasy, F280297; Bob and Mary Ireland, F230579 and Joe and Loretta Maitre, F217242. Upon arrival we expected to be doing punch lists on 4 homes built during the previous months blitz build and then starting a 5th home. Upon arrival, we discovered the affiliate’s blitz build had been an overwhelming success and we had only minor punch lists on the 4 homes plus the 5th home was ready for vinyl siding and roofing shingles. We completed those tasks in 3 days and proceeded to landscape three of the homes. With those 5 homes as far as we could take them, we put together framing crew to fabricate the window and door openings for a 6th home that would not be started in a few weeks. With the affiliate so far ahead of schedule we mutually agreed to end our build participation three days early on Saturday, October 14th vice Tuesday the 17th.

Mary Ireland served as our food chairperson and achieved outstanding results with $44.06 of our build fee being excess and donated to the Chapter treasury. Mary worked with the affiliate volunteer coordinator, Rosemary Fuhrmann, in arranging all of our lunches and snacks being provided by local restaurants or affiliate volunteers. They were also was responsible for tracking all the build team’s volunteer hours.

The highly qualified affiliate on-site construction supervisor, Pat Falvey, was very pleased with the talents, and work ethics of our build team members and was hard pressed to keep us fully employed.

The Moore County Habitat affiliate provided a farewell luncheon for two new homeowner families we were privileged to work with and the youngest family member presented each build participant with a Golden Hammer. The affiliate invited us back next year and promised to have us a bare foundation ready for construction if we accepted the invitation. The local newspaper covered the build and printed an extensive article with pictures following our departure from Aberdeen.

Each one of us came away with that wonderful feeling we had helped, in a small way, for five more families to realize a dream of owning their own home. We just wish we could have helped a little more. It was a gratifying experience to work with a successful affiliate that attracts community volunteers and sponsors and builds houses. The entire team expressed an interest in accepting the invitation to return to Aberdeen, NC next year if it could be arranged and individual schedules permitted.