Building housing for the needy -YEG Passport Rotary club makes a difference
On August 7, 2019 a team from YEG Passport including Kathy Hawkesworth, Anne McAthey, Wayne McCutcheon, Andre Peters and Joy Pfannmuller convened at Carter Place 2216 24 St. for a day of home building with Habitat for Humanity.
The volunteering was from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm. starting with the site supervisor giving a briefing on the safety features that we had to follow at the construction site and the importance of wearing our safety gear like Hard Hats, Gloves, Steel Toed Boots and safety glasses. We were introduced to the construction crew and who would be in charge of our group. Our group was divided in two; one group was digging up some window wells and to reinstall them, the other group was involved in landscaping activities. In between our shifts we had two coffee breaks and a lunch break provided by Habitat For Humanity which gave us a good time to socialize with the other volunteers and the construction crew. On the whole, we had a great time even though it involved a lot of manual work and it was a pretty hot day.
Impact and background
This project was started by Mr. Jimmy Carter the US Past President. He and his wife Rosalynn came to Edmonton to inaugurate the project and to volunteer, even though Mr. Carter was in his 80’s. This project was established to provide housing to the lower income group of our community and Habitat For Humanity depends on volunteers for most of their work to make the project cost effective. We also learned that the recipients of this house have to volunteer for 500 hours, which is considered as a down payment.
People selected to receive these houses are from the lower income group and are mostly new immigrants to Canada. We were very glad to be a part of this project as it is a great way to give back to our local community, so that these new immigrants can have a good house which is the most important need for any family settling down in a new country.