Habitat founder and president Millard Fuller (center) breaks ground with community leaders on what is today the Hillside Place neighborhood in LaGrange, Ga.

Behind the Scenes:
Planning for Success at the Jimmy Carter Work Project

by Rebekah Daniel

A blitz build, in Habitat for Humanity terminology, is the technique of building a complete Habitat house in a compressed amount of time. Volunteers, homeowners, sponsors and subcontractors manage a fast-paced surge of activity to reach the pinnacle of Habitat construction: dedicating the house and presenting keys to a new homeowner.

Each year, thousands of volunteers participate in Habitat's most famous blitz build: the Jimmy Carter Work Project. Most volunteers' time commitment consists of one week of intense activity. However, it takes months of planning to ensure that volunteers arrive to find beds ready to sleep in, meals ready to eat, and foundations ready to build on.

"Basically, the blitz week is pretty boring for the [event] leadership, unless something goes wrong," says Nevil Eastwood, director of Habitat for Humanity International's Construction and Environmental Resources department. "It's like a runaway train--all you have to do is keep the train on the tracks."

Laying the tracks for a smooth and successful Jimmy Carter Work Project is a process that begins more than a year before volunteers arrive to build. While many affiliates could plan a local event in less time, the number of people involved and the publicity surrounding a JCWP can make hosting it intimidating. Both national and local corporate sponsors must be given appropriate recognition, and high-profile broadcast media nudge wide-eyed volunteers and homeowners into the spotlight.

Where does one begin? After a location is chosen, the first task is to assemble a steering committee of city government representatives, community leaders and affiliate staff to guide the process. The group becomes a sort of human bulletin board, providing a means for the various subcommittees to share progress, make requests and coordinate their plans. The steering committee also makes a crucial decision: how many houses to build.

The decisions that follow on the heels of choosing house totals are myriad. Families--and alternates--are selected. Volunteer registration forms are drawn up. Fund-raising committee members recruit local sponsors, taking care not to drain the business community's funding reserve. A site is selected. Infrastructure development is scheduled. Permits are requested. Meals are planned. Budgets are developed.

As the year progresses and to-do list tasks are checked off, the JCWP slowly evolves from an idea to an experience. By the time the volunteers converge on the build site, the foundations--both literal and figurative--are complete. By then, the time and sweat event planners have invested in the project have earned them the reward of special moments, such as the grin on LaGrange, Ga., JCWP homeowner Sandy Sedano's face on a hot late afternoon during this year's JCWP.

"I don't want to put my tools away," Sedano says. "I'm having too much fun."