On February 19, I spent a Friday away from work (sweat equity never felt so good!) volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of Washington, DC. Now I’ve participated in build projects before, from the Hudson Valley in New York to Highlands County, FL, but the project in DC is unique for its sheer scale. At a 53-home development in Northeast DC which already accommodates nearly forty families, a crew of Americorps volunteers and armies of weekend volunteers stay on pace to build ten new homes each year. DC has only recently begun to rebound from decades of urban decay following major riots in 1968, and the significance of the H4H effort here was enough to prompt a visit from the President and First Lady on September 11 of last year.



Against that broad background, my part in this project was as small as a 6’ x 8’ room. I hung sheet rock in what may become, of all things, an elevator shaft. This home – something of an anomaly among affordable housing’s usually simple, one-story floor plans – is being built to American Disability Association specifications. That means bigger bathrooms, a very unique kitchen and, because it’s multi-story, plans for an elevator! I have hung sheet rock many times, but working on a new site inevitably brings fresh experience (sheetrocking an elevator shaft), new skills (“Glue before you screw!”), and new vocabulary: “cripple” (stud), “mud” (spackle), and “heat gun” (propane-fired heat artillery - er, space heater, which also goes under “fresh experience”).

The bottom line is, even if you have volunteered on build sites before, your sweat equity hours are an opportunity to hone your skills, learn new things, and experience the great work that’s being done on affordable housing beyond even the impressively expansive boundaries of Bike and Build!