Last year, when Habitat converted to working remotely, some of our dedicated volunteers also began working from home. Diane, who enters volunteer hours and information into Habitat’s database, has kept busy from home as more volunteers have returned to our sites. Roger—who serves on the resource development committee and helps process donations and thank supporters—also volunteers from home. He recently converted part of his process to Microsoft Teams and learned the software to collaborate with Habitat staff.
Roger joined the cadre of Habitat volunteers in 2006 and helped work on the final home in the Treehouse Community. That was 38 houses ago! He found it “challenging and fun” to work with the other volunteers to build a home and quickly realized that he was interested in learning more about Habitat’s work and vision. In past years, Habitat would pause construction in the winter. During that year’s construction shutdown, Roger moved into volunteering in the office—and found his niche! He has been a weekly volunteer for fifteen years.
Roger says, “It has surprised me how deeply appreciated the staff has always made me feel, and how my respect and commitment to Habitat’s work in Jefferson County has grown over time. When I first volunteered, the staff consisted of an Executive Director and a part-time receptionist/office manager/volunteer coordinator. Habitat was just emerging from its early years as a totally volunteer-run affiliate. Now we are professionally staffed, our vision is much bigger, and we are able to help more people get into a safe and affordable home.”
His wife Diane agrees. “I really enjoy feeling useful and the people are wonderful to work with. I feel so deeply appreciated and miss being there because of Covid! I miss the ceremonies: breaking ground, prayers in the walls, handing over the keys. They make my heart sing.”
Diane joined the Habitat volunteer family in 2011 and has been helping to maintain our database since, including during a database swap. She says that when she started, there was a stack of paperwork a foot high to enter into the system. These days, we send the forms to Diane via USPS and hope to never have that big of a backlog again!
We are so grateful for our dedicated longtime Habitat volunteers, Roger and Diane.