Last year, the church we are members of in Maine participated in their first Mission Trip, assisting an organization with various repairs for multiple homeowners. I was able to be part of that group and enjoyed being able to assist those families with painting or minor carpentry skills.
Because Chuck and I are retired and traveling all over, I started looking for similar opportunities for us as to help others. While searching the Internet, I learned about a group called Care-A-Vanners, folks with RVs who help at different Habitat for Humanity builds across North America. CAVers use their RVs as their home during the build, most are fulltimers like us, but some people use vacation time to go and help in a different community from where they live. We were going to join a build in FL last fall, but a family member’s health concerns delayed our plans.
In mid-July I received an email indicating a need for more RVers for a build taking place in Brookings, SD the following week. Since we were approaching South Dakota and wanted to spend some time in our new home state, we decided to sign up. A community hopes to get 5 or 6 RVs. We learned there would be 1 other RV with us.
We arrived on Sunday, and met the other Care-A-Vanner who would be working with us. They were an older couple who had participated in numerous Habitat builds, but the wife was no longer physically able to; staying “home” in their RV while the husband went to the build. Unfortunately, they had a mechanical issue with their RV and had to leave after the first day.
When we arrived at the home the first day, House 49 was just a cement foundation. We helped lay trip boards, put in flooring joists, flooring plywood, install S.I.P. (Structural Insulated Panels), build and frame walls and install roofing trusses. We operated table saws, chop saws, air guns and lots of hammers.
Over the next two weeks we generally spent 7 hours a day helping build a home for a mom and her two kids. The work crew weekdays would be the general contractor, Chuck and myself. Wednesday is a local volunteer day and we were joined by 7 to 10 people, including the homeowner, which allowed us to make greater headway.
One thing we didn’t anticipate when we signed up to be Care-A-Vanners with Habitat for Humanity in Brookings, SD, was extreme weather. The temperature was over 100 the first week and we were out in the bright sun. Lunch was provided for the work site volunteers daily, and several days we left our build site to go to Habitat’s local office to cool off in their air conditioned space. One evening there was a severe thunderstorm and even a tornado watch in our region.
Before the build, I had always thought that Habitat “Gave” people their homes in exchange for hours spent working on their home (or helping Habitat in some manner). It turns out, each homeowner “Buys” their home at cost, financed with 0% interest thru Habitat. A few times during our stay we heard Habitat does not give a hand out, but a hand up.
We seriously considered sticking around the community to join their next RV Care-A-Vanner build starting a week after our time ended, but the call of the wild in Yellowstone as well as more travel through the country convinced us it was time to move on. When we left Brookings after our two week stint, there was a lot more to do on the home, no way was it finished. The anticipated completion and move in time for the homeowner and her children is Thanksgiving. While there’s still much work for the community to do, it was a special time for Chuck and I to be able to participate.
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