Today I would like to share the story of how I became involved (and seemingly addicted) to working with Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing. Both organizations were founded by Millard and Linda Fuller. Many people think that it was started by former president Jimmy Carter but it's not so. He was friends of the Fullers and they asked him after he left the presidency to help out and he agreed to lead the Jimmy Carter Work Project. These were, and are still, weekly events held annually since 1979. The JCCWPs started small in the earlier years. In 1991 it was held in Washington, DC. I read about it in the paper and went down to see if I could help. I wasnt working at the time. At that time, the project involved the construction of 10 simple, decent homes to be built in 5 days, on Benning Rd., S.E. Washington. For the first two evenings, I worked on the "elf crew"- we made sure that the all of the houses were where they were supposed to be according to the extremely tight 5-day work schedule. After the first two evenings, I was invited to return during the day. The house, sponsored by GE, was completed on Friday and on Saturday there was a house dedication where keys and a bible were presented to the ten new Habitat homeowners. At the closing ceremony, they have the "passing of the hammer", where a representative of the host city passes the hammer to a representative of next years's host city's representative. In 1992 it was to be in Toronto, Canada.. Actually it was in two citys- Kitchener and Waterloo. 20 houses in 5 days. We decided to attend, registered this time, and drove wife and 5 little boys at that time (aged 6 to little) and camped out at a wonderful campsite with swimming pools, minigolf, amusement parks, etc. so that Mom and kids had something to do while Dad was out building homes. The main thing that impressed me about the organization was it's organization. All of the foundations are in, all of the materials are loaded in containers next to each house with the things you need first at the front, and the things you need last in the back. All done with volunteers and a small dedicated staff. The volunteers don't necessarily have the ability but they have the availability. And a heart to serve. We had a great time that year and the following year, in the summer, we heard of another build called 20/20 in Americus, Georgia. They would be "blitz-building" twenty houses and the 20th house would be the 20,000th house that Habitat had built since in founding in 1976. Since we had so much fun on the one in Canada, we signed up again and drove 12 hrs down to Georgia. Made arrangements to stay at the Plains campground. Turned out there wasnt much to do for wife and 5 yound boys other that watch the corn grow and sweat. Lois (my wife) after enduring the second day of sweltering heat and boredom, set out on a forced march from Plains to Americus to report to me at the build site that this was not working. fortunately, someone in a pickup truck offered them a ride so they didnt have to walk all ten miles. That Wednesday evening while having dinner at Cavalry Episcopal Church, Mr. George Peagler (now Judge Peagler) heard of our plight and pulled me aside and told me to go down the the local motel and just tell them my name. They had made arrangements for two rooms for us, AC, pool, color tv, etc. and saved the day. Ive visited Americus Ga. 3-4 times since and have beccome friends with George and Ann and will be seeing them this week while I am in Americus. To be continued. . . .. Peter
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