Whirlpool employee Ray Isted reflects on a decade of partnership

Two Whirlpool employees share memories of their decade of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. One employee was instrumental in planting and nurturing the partnership between Whirlpool and Habitat—the corporate partnership is one of Habitat’s largest. The other employee was charged with creating awareness of the new partnership that was relatively unknown in Europe and Central Asia.

Although country borders, several time zones and an ocean separate their experiences and careers, they share a remarkably similar passion for their involvement in the partnership between Whirlpool and Habitat, which is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Ray Isted
Head of Training
Whirlpool UK
The following life-changing interaction took place at the 2005 Carter Work Project in Detroit and Benton Harbor, Michigan, Whirlpool’s hometown. Yet Isted’s first exposure to Habitat came in a conference room, rather than on a build site. For more than a year, he worked to build awareness in meeting rooms, trade shows, offices and even hallways before having the chance to build houses.

I remember helping install the locks on the front door of the home, and I quite simply handed the keys from the locks to the homeowner and said, “Here are the keys to your door.” She became nearly hysterical because I had given her the keys to her new home. Seeing what that meant to her—that those keys were quite literally the keys to her new life—is a feeling I never will forget.

I learned about the partnership at a Whirlpool Brand Council meeting and was asked to give a presentation back in the UK when I returned. The more I learned about it, the more passionate I became.

I connected with Habitat because of what we do. We know that not everyone is as fortunate as many of us. Not everyone has access to appliances, and we know that in the home and in a family, those appliances mean a lot. Often, we can get quite wrapped up in ourselves and how wonderful we are. Yet when you hear a story about someone being in a situation they haven’t chosen to be in, it’s not difficult to understand that person might need a helping hand.

It was my job to communicate Habitat to our organization. There’s a home retailer in the UK by the same name, so in our own building, it took a lot of internal communication to help people understand it. We would invite Habitat to join internal communications meetings, and we held a brick drive so employees could buy a paper brick and stick it on a house poster on the wall to demonstrate how we were raising funds to build a house. I began focusing on ways to allow Habitat exposure through everything Whirlpool did. We integrated Habitat into our work with the Women’s Tennis Association. Finally, we had our first chance to build in London, and what a great experience that was!

When you participate in a build with people you see at work but who you don’t really know, you see them in a different light. It’s a great team-building exercise to develop a relationship that allows you to know them outside of work. People really enjoy it, and we all learn to do things we never thought we could do. I’ve got no do-it-yourself skills whatsoever; I didn’t know I could mix concrete, insulate walls or go up on the roof. Until then, I simply worked to communicate well.

But when the build comes, you move up a gear in your passion. I invited journalists to join us on our first build, and I remember seeing them out there building with us. One of them later asked me to speak to his church about Habitat. I remember the homeowner on that first build—a bus driver who had been living in an apartment that was constantly burgled. I can picture him sweeping the floor when we finished his house, and he was beaming—BEAMING. His smile stretched full from cheek to cheek because he was so pleased and grateful for us giving our time.

When you actually meet the person who’s going to own the home—when you see the homeowner moving in and you know you’ve helped this person, it’s an amazing feeling that I wish you could put in a jar.

I always wish I could do more.


Read Whirlpool employee Tom Halford reflects on a decade of partnership.