Who Can Volunteer?

Our Towns Habitat for Humanity could not function without the support of our volunteers.

 

Our volunteers give the equivalent of over 66,000 hours during the course of a year: Everything from house construction to committee involvement, from data entry to public speaking.

 

Many of our volunteers had never held a hammer when they started while others were skilled contractors.

 

The common interest of all our volunteers is their willingness to help families build homes who would otherwise not be able to afford one. Every volunteer has a talent to bring to Habitat, whether it is to build homes, work in our office, work in our store, or help on a committee. All are welcome.

 

Young people ages 16 and 17 are welcome on our construction sites as long as a parent or guardian comes with them. Youth ages 18 and up are allowed without a parent or guardian. A waiver of liability is required before working on a site.

 

Our volunteers are not only individuals who live and work in our four towns, but many of them also attend houses of worship in our four towns. They are of all faiths and backgrounds, coming together for the purpose of putting their beliefs into action, building communities, and changing lives one family at a time.

 

Habitat is a great way to demonstrate team spirit and it is rewarding to see the results of your labor at the end of the day.

 

If you or your Church groups, business, and other organizations would like to volunteer, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone 704-896-8957 ext 1108. You can also download a Volunteer Registration Form and mail or fax it to the Volunteer Coordinator at 704-896-8065.

 

A Volunteer's Story: Dick Mahoney

Volunteers are the foundation of Habitat for Humanity, even if they spend much of their lives in the air. Dick Mahoney, an 11-year volunteer for Our Towns Habitat for Humanity, is a retired military and commercial airline pilot. Dick spent his career in the air. Immediately after graduating college in Delaware he joined the Navy where he served for 6 1/2 years and became a skilled pilot. After discharge Dick transitioned to piloting commercial aircraft and maintained his military ties by joining the Naval Reserves.
A captain with US Airways, Dick flew mostly domestic flights, commuting cross-country for much of his career. While in the air he saw construction projects and often wished he was down there with his hammer and nails. Dick enjoyed woodworking as a hobby and wanted to try his hand at construction. After hanging up his wings in 1999, he got his chance.
Church friends invited Dick to join them for a Saturday volunteer build with OTHFH. That was over a decade ago. Since then he has led six house builds, three in Lake Norman and three in Guatemala, and is a fixture on the mid-week crew. He says it was a natural progression. "I had time and was looking to give back. I loved the idea of Habitat and what it did for the community."

Being on a mid-week crew is the fastest way to learn new construction skills. "A group of volunteers are assigned a task like drywall or baseboards. The Task Leader explains it thoroughly, gives you the tools and monitors your progress to make sure you are doing it right," Dick explains. "After you do it a few times, you are almost ready to train others yourself. This is how leaders are developed along the way."

Dick shares his knowledge not only with other volunteers on the house builds but also with Habitat homeowners. He teaches a home maintenance class as part of the Homeowners in Process course. His class empowers new homeowners to do their own maintenance instead of calling expensive repair services.

As in his aviation career, Dick mixed some international trips into his Habitat service, going to Guatemala seven times for builds. He recalls one trip that included a local high school student named Chance. The trip made such an impression on Chance that when he returned he started a Habitat club at his school that continues today.
That kind of enthusiasm is what Dick likes most about volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. He says with Habitat "you get to work with motivated people who are there because they want to be." Habitat volunteers don't just building houses, they build communities.
Dick's wife Trish has volunteered with Habitat, too. While Dick was away so much with his career, Trish was busy raising their four daughters. When she first came to volunteer, her building experience only included hanging pictures in their home. Now Dick has a photo of her hanging shingles on a house.
When asked for his favorite aspect of volunteering with Our Towns Habitat for Humanity, Dick is hard pressed to pick only one. Thinking of one aspect of building leads to another, each one triggering another memory and thoughts of the friends he has made. Mostly, it's the homeowners who keep Dick coming back to Habitat. "They are highly motivated people working hard to improve their lives," Dick says. "It is a privilege to help them."