Build Pictures

APPLE VALLEY BUILD REPORT
by Lynn Laymon & Linda Walden, Team Leaders

From March 27 to April 6 twenty chapter members participated in the building of two Habitat homes in Apple Valley, CA. We arrived prepared to do insulation and drywall work, but once the affiliate discovered the talent within our ranks they quickly began reassigning select members to more serious construction tasks. The rest of us started on the insulation. By week’s end the ceilings were ready for a team of local firemen who had volunteered to drywall the houses’ cathedral ceilings while our group recuperated.

The second week we completed insulating the walls and began drywalling. By our last day the houses were mostly drywalled and a number of other critical ancillary projects had been completed by the more skilled among us.

Food chairperson Millie Johnson did a superb job of keeping us well fed at the job site and coordinating the meals provided by local churches and businesses. At the farewell dinner the High Desert Habitat affiliate presented each build participant with the coveted "Golden Hammer" pin in appreciation of all our hard work. The local media covered the build with a front-page story and pictures in the Sunday newspaper.

Like all Habitat builds, Apple Valley was another Win-Win situation. Each of us departed with a renewed sense of being and the local Habitat group reaped more than they expected, as noted by the following letter from the affiliate’s on-site construction supervisor:

Dear Friends,

Now that the dust has settled at the Apple Valley Habitat project and the FMCA group has moved on it is time to review where we are and what was accomplished by the RV group during the recent "build".

When your group arrived I do not believe that we knew just how much work we had ahead of us. To coin a phrase "We were dead in the water". The work that your group accomplished has moved us so far along that we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The results of the work of the FMCA Chapter: Habitat for Humanity® will be in the forefront of our thoughts forever. When we finally move the two selected families into their new homes and we have a ceremony, each of us will visualize your group at various locations in the homes doing the construction that helped to bring the project to fruition.

The experience and expertise of your group was unimaginable. I learned that in assigning a task to one of your members and getting an answer "We can handle it!" that I should walk away knowing that the job would be handled in a professional manner and in a manner that we all would be proud of.

Many thanks for the work that you did for us. Please keep up the good work. I am sure that there are many other affiliates that are in need of your services.

Loren Grassmueck

High Desert Affiliate, HFH