Featured news

Hello fellow Care-A-Vanners,

I am starting my fourth year sitting in this “desk” chair and I thought it was a good time to share a few things that are always good Care-A-Vanner topics: where we have been and where we are going. First, our original Care-A-Vanner desk team is still together with a few additions. They are an incredible group of people whom I am honored to work with. Be sure to thank your all volunteer desk staff whenever you have a chance.

A few months ago I shared our build numbers with you. It looks like we are going to have another record breaking year for 2014-15. However, I am still canceling way too many builds due to lack of builders, so I need everyone recruiting for the Care-A-Vanner program. If you have someone who is interested in the program, please refer them to Joyce Rush, our new member coordinator, at [email protected] after you finish telling them what a great experience building with the RV Care-A-Vanners really is. I have some good news for the winter build season where we filled most of our builds in Florida this year. We are adding another three or four Florida affiliates to our listings. Some are coming online this winter, and some next winter. Watch for those build on our build list and support these new affiliates.

Our safety program, after a slow start, is finally starting to gain some momentum. Our problem was lack of staff support, but HFHI fast tracked a new position for the U.S. Office of Construction Technology and that person's primary responsibility will be to line up affiliates for training. Our plan is to train 20 new Master Safety Trainers every year. Affiliates will need to take course updates every three years, and that will more than keep our trainers busy.

Our Disaster Rebuild program has been a great success. We have a build team going to Loveland, Colorado, this spring for a flood recovery rebuild. We are still working Hurricane Sandy relief in Toms River, New Jersey, and continuing the rebuild in Tuscaloosa. We have completed the rebuild effort in West Liberty, Kentucky, our first venture into disaster response. Finally, with our partners at HFHI, Disaster Risk Reduction and Response, we are planning a Hurricane Katrina 10-year reunion build in November along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Our Collegiate Challenge partnership continues to grow under Diane Gravlee's leadership. We have more and more affiliates asking us for crew leaders during Collegiate Challenge weeks. The young folks love this program and we old folks do too!

It has been a remarkable year for the Care-A-Vanner program. We celebrated our 25th anniversary with a grand event and that, along with our new initiatives, have gotten our program noticed by the senior leadership team at HFHI who have given us their endorsement and support. We made the year in review highlight reel for the first time and our program was recognized by Jonathan Reckford, CEO of HFHI, in his year-end top 10 at Habitat list. We shared this honored recognition with HFHI's new partnership on housing with the United Nations, the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project and the new habitat homeowner who finally got the house of her dreams with a red front door, to name a few.

This all sounds great. I can line up lots of new affiliates, create new programs for Care-A-Vanners to participate in and get recognition for our program, but without your dedication and hard work, none of this would be possible. Your commitment to ending poverty housing is the real success story of the RV Care-A-Vanners and together we are making a difference for the many families we served this past year. Keep up the good work!

Thank you and have a productive, fun and safe new year!

Mary Vandeveld
RV Care-A-Vanner coordinator
[email protected]
Facebook

Credit where credit is due: Last month there was a great cartoon that was supposed to be with the Why We Build story by Clint Norrell, but in the editing process, it ended up in my column. I already have one of Clint's cartoons hanging in my RV that I love. Clint has generously donated the original of last month's cartoon to the Care-A-Vanner desk. I will get it framed and it will proudly hang in the Global Village office reminding everyone about the Care-A-Vanners. Thank you Clint for your generous gift!

From the registration desk

Happy New Year to all, wherever you may be! This RVing lifestyle is so special – just last month Mary Vandeveld, Brenda Sawyer and I (three members of the RV Care-A-Vanner desk team) were all together in Americus, meeting with our support folks there locally. It's not often you'll find the three of us in the same place – and just a few weeks later, we are like pool balls scattered across the table. Mary and Dave are visiting affiliates in Florida; Brenda and Kit are in Arizona and Larry and I are in the Savannah, Georgia, area.

There are two topics I'd like to cover this month. First is the recent lottery for the Leland, Mississippi, build. Thanks to all who participated and for all the feedback. We received a lot of positive feedback and some negative – all very good points, pro and con. Now that I've tested this out and seen what is involved, I've decided against using the lottery for future popular builds – it was more labor intensive than I thought. Registrations for popular builds will be done as before – the date and time the build(s) will be ”live”will show up in the monthly newsletter. Thanks for your patience while I tried this out.

The second topic is waivers: If your spouse or traveling companion will be participating in a build for which you are registering, please make sure you both complete the required online waivers for each build at the time of registration. We recently met with the IT department about ways to highlight the step to complete the waivers, making the requirement more visible. Please keep in mind we only need emergency contact info – name and phone number. Medical information is not necessary. We've tried to make the process as simple and painless as possible. Completing these waivers on the front end saves me a lot of time later trying to ensure they are completed. With the increased number of builds, the extra time tracking people down for the waivers is adding up – wasted time not necessary if the waivers are done completely during registration. Thanks so much for your help with this.

Until next time – safe travels as you head out to our many winter builds!

Lu Tillotson
RV registration desk
[email protected]

Tithing:

The Gift of Giving, by Mary Vandeveld:

Part of my responsibility as your team leader is to share with you the many wonderful things that HFHI is doing. We all work at the affiliate level and have that prospective, and at times hear things from local volunteers and affiliate staff that we may not fully understand. We now bring you the Windows on Washington column every month that shares what HFHI is doing in the U.S. and around the world in housing advocacy, and if you have been faithfully reading Piper's columns as I have, they are doing important and wonderful work. The tithe group at HFHI is doing equally important work. Many of the third world countries HFHI builds in do not have enough wealth to support a Habitat affiliate and tithing is a way to provide that funding. You will find after reading today's column that tithing was an important concept to Millard Fuller, our founder. I have asked Katie Grover to start from the beginning and write a series of articles that will share with you the important work that her department is doing.

Tithe Connections by Katie Grover

Happy 2015! The Tithe program is excited to have the opportunity to have a column in your monthly newsletter. We are big fans of the RV Care-A-Vanners program, as you all are truly the hands and feet on the ground carrying out Habitat's mission nationwide. Through this channel, we hope to share with you information around the Tithe program and recruit you as advocates of Habitat's international work.

To start from the beginning –

What is the Affiliate Tithe Program and how did it start?

In 1979, Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, attended a home dedication in Zaire. During the dedication ceremony, Sam Mompongo, the leader of the local Habitat affiliate, took up a collection and presented half of the money to Millard Fuller. Sam asked that this money be used to help start a new Habitat affiliate in Guatemala. From that first gift, the entire Tithe program grew. U.S. affiliates began tithing to support the international mission in 1980 and the tithe is now a foundational principle of Habitat.

Through the Tithe program, Habitat affiliates are eliminating poverty housing not only from their own communities but also around the world. Today, U.S. affiliates collectively tithe millions of dollars each year to serve families in all corners of the globe – and 100 percent of those gifts are sent internationally to benefit families outside the United States. In the more than 35 years of the Tithe program, U.S. affiliates have collectively tithed more than $220 million and served more than 70,000 international families.

In February, we look forward to sharing with you more about the Tithe program and how the program operates today.

Katie Grover
Tithe specialist, Habitat for Humanity International
[email protected]

Featured builds:

Vero Beach: Vero Beach has just come back online with the Care-A-Vanner program. It is a great affiliate with a terrific staff. Let's show them a great Care-A-Vanner welcome back by signing up for their builds this winter.

Support the RV Care-A-Vanner program: Although your Care-A-Vanner program is run completely by volunteers, we do have some expenses such as our laptops and the upcoming Affiliate Conference in March 2015 where we will have a booth. The conference enables some 2,000 affiliate personnel to stop by and talk with us, ask questions and find out if the RV Care-A-Vanners can assist their affiliate. You can donate by sending a check to the RV Care-A-Vanner program, 121 Habitat St, Americus, GA 31709. Make the check out to the RV Care-a-Vanner program and be sure to put “Project Code 1108007”in the check memo. The other even easier way to donate is to go to our website and click on the “Donate to RV Care-A-Vanners”button.

Hours and stories needed:

We need our volunteers to report their hours to the Care-A-Vanner desk. If you are on a build without a team leader, be sure that someone is assigned to keep the hours. If you are on a drop-in, those hours count too. Affiliates do not report your hours to the desk. I need hours worked and number of houses worked on. This data is very important for grant applications and grant reporting and I love to hear those "why we build" stories! It is the partner families that keep us motivated, so send your stories and your hours to [email protected].

Why We Build: Bill and France Moriarty

As it appeared on Habitat.org by Soyia Ellison about our very own Care-A-Vanners

Every morning, Bill and France Moriarty pray that God will show them His will for their lives. One day, back in 2001, they heard Him say, “You've got too much stuff.”At the time, the Moriartys owned a booming construction business in South Florida and had a house, a condo at the beach and a cabin on a lake. The message about “too much stuff”was accompanied by a call to the mission field — though they had no idea what that meant.

“France told me, ‘I'm not learning to speak Spanish; I'm not living in a tent; I'm not going to the bathroom in a bucket,'”Bill recalled with a laugh. A year or so earlier, Bill had begun volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of Broward County. He fell in love with the work and recruited France. Over time, the Moriartys began to believe that, for them, the mission field meant Habitat's RV Care-A-Vanners program, in which volunteers travel around the country building houses with people in need. But the Moriartys didn't see how they could afford such an undertaking.

They decided to set some seemingly impossible monetary goals and say, “God, if you really want us to do this, make it happen financially.”Within a week, they sold a piece of property they had been unable to unload for 15 years. Not long afterward, a developer called to say he was bringing them $330,000 — money they had written off as uncollectible years earlier when the company went bankrupt.

Meanwhile, they sold their condo and their cabin. They didn't miss them. “We realized we didn't own our stuff,”Bill said. “Our stuff owned us.”By the end of the year, the Moriartys had the money they needed to set out. Scared but excited, they closed their business and bought an RV. And in 2002, when Bill was 44 and France was 39, they hit the road with the Care-A-Vanners, most of whom are retirees. “I joke that we didn't make friends, we made parents,”France said.

‘Not ready to settle down just yet'

The first year on the road, they built in Michigan, New York, North Dakota, New Mexico and Georgia. The second year, they added seven more states to their travel log. France kept track of their moves on a map she hung on the RV door, marking the spots with rhinestones. Their locations and house count grew as they began specializing in disaster response work, organizing major rebuilding projects after hurricanes and tornados. “The houses seem to blend together,”France said. “It's the people who make it fun.”So much fun that the five years the Moriartys planned to spend on the road has stretched to more than 10.

Bill and France have been together for 27 years. After so many years of sharing a couple of hundred square feet of space, the two often finish each other's sentences. They bicker playfully, but they are each other's biggest cheerleaders, fiercely proud of their partner's accomplishments. The Moriartys don't see themselves giving up their wheels for at least 10 more years.

“I'm not ready to settle down just yet,”said France, who recently turned 50. “We're going to quit the Care-A-Vanner program when most people start.”

Why do they keep building? Bill explains by telling a story about a recent house dedication in Atlanta, where the speakers included a woman who had moved into her Habitat home in 1996. “This lady talked about how her life has changed since she's been in her Habitat house, how she's continued and furthered her education, how she's been involved in numerous civic organizations, how she's been working to transform her neighborhood.

“And I thought, ‘That's why we do this.' We do it because we're part of changing people's lives.”

Accomplishments

Remember: Send us photos of your builds and newspaper articles. You have been lax lately and I want pictures! If you would like to submit anything to the newsletter – a good story, a new way to do things, a construction tip or an update on a build – please do. I love to get homeowner stories. This is your newsletter, and we welcome your input. Besides, you have got to be getting tired of hearing from only me! Send your contributions to [email protected]. I want to hear from all of you!

Team leader corner

Hello team leaders,

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season and are staying warm wherever you are. Kit and I are at the SKP Park in Benson, Arizona, until the third week in February. If you are out this way, please stop by and say hi.

A special thank you goes out to our December team leaders, David and Roxanne Draves and Greg and Pam Lurz.

Remember, if you've been thinking about becoming a team leader but are not sure what's involved, contact me at [email protected] and I will send you the guidelines. Lack of construction experience is not a reason to pass on being a team leader. Organization and people skills are what are important. So, don't forget to check the “team leader interest”box on your registration if you are willing to lead the build.

If you are unable to read the roster I send you, or things appear to be on the wrong lines, chances are you have a Mac or iPad and Word documents do not format correctly. Just let me know and I will send them in PDF.

Team leaders, just a reminder that the team leader affiliate checklist, found in your team leader information packet, should be used to contact the affiliate and gather the information needed to send out the welcome letter to your team. If you have any suggestions on how this checklist can be improved (i.e., additional information that would be helpful to know), please send them to me.

Finally, team leaders are needed for the following builds. If you are available and willing, please contact me.

February 8 – 22	Vero Beach, FL
March 8 – 22	Sebring, FL
March 8 – 22	Thibodaux, LA
March 22 – 29	Salt Lake City, UT
March 29 – April 12	Indiantown, FL

Thank you and happy hammering!

Brenda Sawyer
Team leader coordinator
[email protected]

Spread the word
Send your RV friends a Care-A-Vanner brochure about this wonderful mission by clicking on this link and pasting it into an email or just print out and give to fellow RVers in campgrounds

Disaster Response

Remember our mission in Disaster Response is to come in at the time of the rebuild efforts. A lot has to happen before rebuild begins, including permitting, fundraising, FEMA grant application and awards, building capacity at the affiliate, family selection, etc. It is easy to remember the disaster that just happened, but where we need help is for the disaster that happened two or three years ago. HFHI Disaster Risk Reduction and Response, our partners, are also working with affiliates to do fortified building to reduce injuries and damage to homes and when a disaster does strike. This includes building safe rooms in tornado areas, hip roofs in hurricane zones and using anchoring systems appropriate for the risk. If you are interested in learning more about fortification standards, please review IBHS Fortified for Safer Living Standards. Your knowledge can help our affiliates learn more about these new building practices.

Superstorm Sandy: Recovery efforts from Sandy continue to be slow. Funding is the struggle for the affected affiliates. I have listed a build in Toms River for next spring. Toms River was ground zero for Sandy and they really need volunteer help, so consider signing up. If you would like to be on my email list for Sandy recovery, please send a note to [email protected]. I will notify Care-A-Vanners on my list first about build opportunities for Sandy Recovery.
Colorado 2013 floods: We had six affiliates in the flood affected areas in Colorado. There was a huge need for low-income housing in the area with a rental vacancy rate of 1 percent before the floods. There were also some mobile home parks that were destroyed in the floods. The six affiliates are working closely with the Colorado State Support Organization and they already have a plan to work together and rebuild 100 new construction homes and do 100 Critical Home Repairs. I recently did a site visit to Colorado and met with representatives of two affiliates and the SSO. We are in the process of lining up some projects to start next spring, so watch the newsletter and our website for updates. We have listed one build in Loveland, Colorado, which is full already, but we expect to list more builds in Loveland soon. If you would like to be on the list and hear about build opportunities first, send me a note to [email protected].
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Tuscaloosa is still building homes for people who lost their housing unit in the 2011 tornado. Tuscaloosa loves the Care-A-Vanners and has builds listed throughout the year. It is a very nice place to work.

Safety corner

Excavations and trenches around two-story or daylight basement houses.

One serious fall area that we have not discussed is the hazard that develops when an excavation for electrical, plumbing, etc., is being dug on the construction site to connect various utilities. If the excavation is over 6 feet in depth there must some type of restraint or control line around the excavation to prevent volunteers from accidently falling into the hole. At times you will run across situations where the excavation work is not completed in one day and the equipment and excavation stay on the job site overnight until the next day.

It's important to guard against falls into these excavations. In addition, if the backhoe or excavator remains on the job site overnight, establishing some form of warning line around the equipment should also be put in place. This can be accomplished by using warning tape on stakes or barricade screening sold at big box stores.

While we as volunteers have no control over subcontractors hired to perform the excavating work, we do have a responsibility to keep our fellow volunteers safe from the risk of a serious fall into an excavation by either of the options I mentioned. Usually an affiliate that has been building for a number of years will have some barricade screening. If what they have is not sufficient to cover the perimeter of the excavation, then using warning tape on tall stakes to cover the remainder of the perimeter will suffice.

If the excavation is directly in the path of travel for work on the project, you may put a 18-inch wide walkway over the excavation. It must have a guardrail on each side. It usually is less cumbersome to develop an alternate route around the excavation for the short time the excavation exists.

A second hazard I have seen concerning excavations is when a building project involves a full basement, daylight basement or hillside lot. A visual survey of the construction site will tell you if there is a potential problem for volunteers working on the walls, floor or access to and from the house. Remember if there is a distance of more than 6 feet from the point of work to the ground, there needs to be fall protection of some type in place. This problem is often easily resolved by the affiliate's subcontractor backfilling the excavation around the house. Scaffolding may be the second best alternative if work is to be performed on walls. This can be tricky as sloped ground may require a stair step of scaffolding and digging to secure the scaffolding feet. Please make your team leader aware of any safety issues covering excavations that you see.

Work safe,

Frank Peccia
Care-A-Vanner safety coordinator
[email protected]

Collegiate Challenge and Care-A-Vanners

This month I would like to mention that Indian River County HFH in Florida has just recently asked for Care-A-Vanners for regular two-week builds, starting January 11 and running through June 28, 2015. You can find those builds and their descriptions listed under Vero Beach, Florida. The RV parking will be in Fellsmere, Florida, a lovely community to the northwest, where there are 10 RV spots with full hookups ($5/night fee) in a housing subdivision in which the affiliate is building.

Construction is in various spots within the county and getting to the job site could require a drive of 30 miles or could be a walk across the street. The reason for talking about these builds is that during January and again in March, the affiliate will be hosting college students and if you register for a Vero Beach build during those times, you may be asked to help crew lead students during that time. This would be a perfect opportunity for you to see if you enjoy working with students, while still being a part of a regular Care-A-Vanner build. Since these have just recently been listed, there are plenty of openings for anyone visiting Florida this winter and spring.

Diane Gravlee
Collegiate Challenge coordinator
[email protected]

Welcome new Care-A-Vanners

Tracey Boaz, Randy Boehmer, Charlie and Jill Brewton, Michael and Pam Cox, Pat Dugand, Bill Edwards and Terry Clarke, Cliff and Joyce Frank, Rich and Gabriela Green, Tiffany Hurd, John and Colleen Koehn, Stephen and Bernita Marion, Darrell and Barbara Melroy, Mark and Suanne Moon, Joe NInke, Bob Pauls, Gary and Teri Rogers, Jeanne Solsberry, Tom and Connie Unsicker.

Our apologies if we have included a seasoned Care-A-Vanner, or if this is duplication. Habitat for Humanity is grateful for the work that you do!

Questions, cancellations or concerns?
1-800-HABITAT, ext. 7534
1-229-410-7534 (direct)
[email protected]
RV Care-A-Vanner staff contact info

Current list of active builds
Builds list

How to register for a build online
Step-by-step instructions

Roster updates
Please email updated roster information to [email protected] or [email protected], or call 1-229-410-7534.

Report Care-A-Vanner hours
Help us keep track of total volunteer hours contributed, and partner families served. Please email these stats from your drop-in or ongoing builds to [email protected].