Building in the rain

Gray skies and intermittent rain did little to squelch the youthful momentum of the Habitat for Humanity 2009 AmeriCorps Build-a-Thon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Crew members donned clear plastic ponchos and carried on with the work at hand: framing roofs and installing windows.

Cheerful AmeriCorps VISTA members made the rounds on golf carts throughout the afternoon, distributing plates of cookies to each house under construction.

“It’s going great,” said Jeff Capps, executive director of Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, surveying the progress on the project’s west site. “The rain doesn’t seem to be slowing anybody down.”

On the east site, which got a little more steady drizzle than the west on Tuesday, two hardy volunteers clad head-to-toe in rain gear directed incoming traffic with big smiles and friendly banter.

NFL quarterback Kurt Warner’s wife, Brenda, and five of their seven children spent part of the rainy day at the local ReStore, sporting makeshift smocks and learning about “creative reuse.” The ReStore offers regular classes for kids and adults on inventive recycling—making jewelry from old buttons, wind chimes using discarded hardware or chalkboards out of old windows.

On Tuesday, 10-year-old Kade Warner learned how to make homemade chalk while little sister Jada, 8, used some paint to turn an old cabinet door into a work of art. Elijah, 5, painted a used ceramic tile with a heart and the word “Mom,” and 3-year-old twins Sierra and Sienna dabbled in many projects at once.