Looking for help

Faced with government regulations that require the charitable organization to staff its second-hand construction supply store with 90 per cent volunteer time, Habitat’s local president and CEO Diane Mitchell on Tuesday issued a plea to the public to come forward and donate their time.

“We are always looking for volunteers,” Mitchell said, standing in front of Habitat’s latest project, a single-family home on Johnson Street.

“Volunteers age and aren’t able to give us as much time as they used to. Volunteers move out of town. Students come and go. So we need volunteers at Habitat.”
 
Mitchell said they are looking for about 27 volunteers to commit to 40 hours a year, and will take people from all walks of life, shapes and sizes.

“We take anybody over the age of 16 to come and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity,” Mitchell said. “You don’t have to have any skills. We will teach you everything. The people that you see on the build site today came to us with no skills. They didn’t know how to build a thing.”

Volunteer Robert Wainwright has worked on several projects, and said he came out at the encouragement of his wife, who wanted to see her retired husband get a little more active. It was one of the best decisions he ever made, Wainwright said.

“You get up at seven in the morning and you’re active and you meet these other people. You learn how to use different tools and the proper way to handle them, so you don’t injure yourself … And you lose weight too. That’s what I was after.”

Mitchell also used the media event to introduce Danielle Smith as Habitat’s new volunteer co-ordinator.

Volunteers are at present working five days a week to build the Johnson Street home.
To volunteer, visit www.habitattbay.com.