 Beth Alessi, a sixth-grade teacher from Fairfax, Va., hammers siding on EMB House No. 1. click to enlarge More about the 1999 Easter Morning Build: Return to Thursday's 1999 EMB Report Rain Too Late to Douse Build Turning Empty Cans into Habitat Houses More Updates: Monday | Tuesday Wednesday | Friday 1998 Easter Morning Build |
Global Village Colleagues Re-Assemble for EMB
AMERICUS, Georgia (April 1, 1999) -- After building homes a continent away, participants in Global Village trips to Alaska have reunited to build House No. 1 in Americus.
The house-building comrades consider the 1999 Easter Morning Build the renewal of friendships forged in summers past.
"You really get to know people on a trip like [the Alaska mission]," Beth Alessi, a sixth-grade teacher from Fairfax, Va., said. "You're sleeping in cots right next to each other, in church pews maybe, and you form a bond when you're together like that."
Last year, shortly after Alessi decided to volunteer with Habitat for the first time, she found herself on a short-term mission trip to Alaska, sharing meals, labor and life with 28 other participants. Less than a year later, she and the others are in Americus to resume their mission during Holy Week and chip away at poverty housing in Sumter County.
As she's gotten to know participants from other GV-Alaska trips, Alessi's realized how revealing the Habitat connection can be.
"It's special getting together like this," she said. "I'm not only reuniting with people I worked with in Alaska, but I'm meeting people from different Alaska trips" and others from a different Habitat experience all together. "We all share this common experience, and that has kind of bridged us during our work this week."
Last year, four Global Village teams traveled to Alaska in May, June, July and August. This week, volunteers representing three of those teams are building EMB House No. 1.
"It's good to see everybody again and to relive the experience we shared in Alaska," said David Pelton, a volunteer from Atlanta who participated in the May short-term mission trip. "We've sort of just picked up where we left off last summer, and everyone's enjoying coming back together like this."
As she adjusted her gloves -- scuffed thin and dirty on the fingertips -- Alessi added that no matter the experience a volunteer derives from Habitat, the reward comes when everyone chases a common outcome and shares with the homeowner a dream of decent, affordable housing.
With each nail, volunteers draw that dream one rung closer for homeowner, Sharon Jackson.
Return to Thursday's 1999 EMB Report
Home | Get Involved | Where We Build | How It Works | True Stories
please see our contact information page.
© 2004 Habitat for Humanity International