Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A Brush With Kindness = SUCCESS

"A Brush With Kindness helps low-income homeowners who are affected by age, disability or family circumstances and struggle to maintain the exterior of their homes. Through ABWK, they are able to reclaim their homes with pride and dignity. ABWK works as a partner with the Habitat core building program, enabling us to serve more families, increase opportunities for volunteers, and expand our base of sponsors. Most importantly, ABWK is part of Habitat's broader community development strategy called the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. The NRI is designed to pursue our strategic imperative of helping to transform and strengthen communities so that those who reside in them will be able to live and grow into all that God intends for them." (A Brush with Kindness Program Guide, Habitat for Humanity International)
On Saturday, November 20, Bay Area Habitat for Humantiy held a pilot project for A Brush With Kindness. To say the least, it was a total success!!

We selected Ms. Georgia Williams to be the guinea pig for this new program. She has been a homeowner partner with us since 1996, when her home was bulit. She has been a proud homeowner for almost 15 years, and her home was in need of a little love.

So, after spending two days prepping - replacing rotten trim and siding, cleaning, and caulking - we were ready to paint! Saturday morning, more than 30 volunteers came to lend a helping hand, and we went to work! Everyone worked from 8:00 am until 3:30 pm, making sure the job was done (breaking only for lunch from Chick-fil-A). Here are some progress pictures from throughout the day!
And, after one, hard day of work, Ms. Georgia had brand new curb appeal!!

Thanks again to all of the volunteers who came out on the 20th! This Kick-Off was a total success, and we look forward to doing more A Brush with Kindness projects in 2011!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Working In The Rain



Last Saturday was not the prettiest day in Dickinson. It was rainy, cold and windy. The day was dark and dreary, and the worksite looked like a giant mud pie; one of those days when you want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers up real tight.

When I arrived on the site at 7:30 am, Tom, our Construction Manager, and a few of the "regular crew" were out there, trying to complete any little job they thought they could. Because of the thick mud and the slick roofs, there wasn't much exterior work that could be done, even though all that was planned for that day was putting up siding and nailing down shingles. I asked Tom what the plan was. He replied by admitting it just wasn't a great work day, and that he was telling the volunteers who called for confirmation just to stay where they were. He and the regulars were going to do what little they could, and planned on leaving in a couple of hours. I offered to go get them some fresh kolaches, and when I came back, I was greatly surprised to see the whole street lined with cars and pick-up trucks! Some of the volunteers decided not to call ahead, and showed up to help in any way they could.

Over 20 volunteers from Wyle Labs, Hope Lutheran, Peace Lutheran, and St. John's Lutheran, completely committed to their designated day of service, decided to face the elements and were willing to do whatever was needed. At 12 pm, two hours later than any of us thought we would be out there, two of the homes were completely cleaned and swept, insulation was brought over and installed, windows were hung and decking put up in the rafters. Overall, it was an extremely successful day! Some volunteers headed home early after completing their specific jobs. Others stayed and helped with more cleanup. For those who were still there at 11:30, lunch was provided by three wonderful ladies from St. John's. They brought a huge spread of hot dogs with all the fixin's, chips, cookies and drinks. The ladies asked me to take pictures of them serving the food at the site, to take back and show to the rest of the congregation. They wanted to emphasize the point that there are so many different ways people can volunteer to help Habitat besides picking up a hammer and saw. And that is so true!

A big thank you to all of the volunteers who came out, when they rightly could have justified staying indoors where it was warm and dry. We truly appreciate your commitment and willigness to serve.

For more information on how you can use your talents and abilities to help Habitat (both on and off the worksite), please contact our office: 281-337-3590; developmentteam@bahfh.org.

Monday, November 15, 2010

AmeriCorps Get "Schooled" in Talladega!


This past week, Rhia, Nathan, and I, Bay Area-Houston Habitat for Humanity's 3 resident AmeriCorps members, were shuttled off to the National Service Leadership Conference in Shocco Springs, Alabama. We spent our days discussing, brainstorming and learning; shifting from one classroom to the next to be taught a lesson in what it is to be an effective AmeriCorps member. It was quite the event, with over 600 service members and staff gathered together to share exciting new ventures their affiliates have taken on, or not so exciting struggles they have come up against in the months and weeks they have been in their positions. It was a long week, and we are still trying to digest all of the information (and all of the snacks they fed us! It was a non-stop smorgasbord of free chips and cookies...brainfood, as we liked to call it!) that was given to us by some of the best and brightest Habitat for Humanity International and National Service staff members.

While our days were filled with an overload of information, night was ours for the taking! The conference center accomodated many activities on site, such as indoor movies, outdoor campfires, rock-climbing, and ultimate frisbee, just to name a few. But the real action took place about 1 mile away from the conference center, at the Talladega Bowling Alley! The only happening place in the area open after 9 PM, the bowling alley offered us a haven of rest and relaxation from the day's mentally exhausting class schedule. And after 9 PM, it was a definitely a site to see, as the majority of the Conference attendees gathered to eat, show off their bowling skills (or lack-there-of), and just "hang out".

There is something to be said about a group of similarly minded individuals gathering together, whether it be to learn more about the things they deem important, or just to spend time with one another, talking and enjoying each other's company. All AmeriCorps members share a common goal: to serve. To serve our communities; to serve our nation. No matter what the cause or the reason behind it, we feel compelled to make a difference in our lifetime. It is our privilege and honor to be a part of this program.

Overall, our trip has left us rejuvinated and excited, and ready to put what we've learned into action to help serve the families of the South East Harris and North Galveston Counties to the best of our abilities, to fulfill as many of their needs as we can.

Thank you to Shocco Springs Baptist Convention Center for hosting us and feeding us, to the Habitat for Humanity International and National Service employees who helped make this all happen, to Talladega Bowling Alley for offering us a place to get away from it all, and most importantly, to the amazing members of the Bay Area-Houston Affiliate, including its' staff, volunteers, and partner families, for giving us a chance to make a difference, and for accepting and supporting us as we try to do just that.


Sincerely,

Your Loving and Grateful AmeriCorps
Rhia, Nathan, and Jackie

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Bay Area Habitat for Humanity will have our second annual Christmas Gift Wrapping event this December! Last year we had over 300 different volunteers work with us! We hope to have the same response this year. We will not be inside the mall this year. We will be in the outside mall across from Plato's Closet. So, this year, we need volunteers to help us gift wrap, but also to help us advertise! We will need to get word out about our location - as we are not going to be as visible as last year! The calendar is below - to volunteer - contact the Bay Area Habitat for Humanity office.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Test Run: Just got on Ping.fm to link our social media updates. Let's see if it works, folks!

Friday, November 5, 2010

BAHFH's Back Online!!!

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks! I can't believe everything is finally settling back in.

We moved into our new office last Thursday. All last week was spent packing, unpacking, painting, cleaning, organizing, re-organizing, and hauling heavy pieces of furniture around Dickinson. Thanks to great support from homeowners and some awesome volunteers, it all went smoothly...EXCEPT for the internet transition. Our servers and network connections were down for a whole week! But we're finally back online!!!


So, sorry to our dedicated online followers. We weren't ignoring you; we just had no way to reach you! But never fear! Now that we have everything under control, we will be blogging, facebooking, tweeting, and updating our webiste on a daily basis!


As part of that, if there is anyone out there who has any great, personal Habitat stories that they would like to share with the online world, e-mail us: developmentteam@bahfh.org. We would love to share your stories, comments, praises, concerns, etc..


Thank you again to all of the volunteers, homeowners, and friends who helped with the move! A big thanks to Joe Jones for running all of the wire and making it possible for us to have phones and electricity, and to Bev and Pete Trivanovich, our affiliate manager and her husband (the computer guy!), for staying late and working diligilently so that we could get back online and access all of our important documents! We are unbelievably blessed with the most amazing staff, funders, volunteers, and partner families!


From the bottom of our hearts (and the tips of our fingers)...THANK YOU!