Sarasota Build

After a short break in Nashville, Emily and I traveled to Sarasota in week two by way of Atlanta.  We made a pit stop at Kelley's, had some delicious veggie chili and watched an educational episode of Kendra before heading off to Sarasota in the morning(which later turned in to Tampa).

We had about an hour drive on our hands from the hostel we were staying at in Tampa to arrive at the build in Sarasota by 7:30.  We got slightly turned around trying to find the site, so we were 5 minutes late.  Even with the experience of a build under out belts, it was still a little intimidating walking on to a new build site.  Baton Rouge was an amazing first experience, but we could tell upon pulling up to the site that this was going to be a totally different build.  This group was literally building a community of homes, many of which were already built.


We parked on this street right off of the highway entering the community.
These are the homes that were previously built.
http://www.sarasotahabitat.com/

As we walked up on site, you could see there were A LOT of people involved in the building of these homes.  There were four houses connected and under construction, two of them on the far left were being worked on by the group of women on site.  I immediately asked for Dena, who had been my point of contact over email.  Emerging from this house was a spitfire, energetic and very enthusiastic woman with an adorable southern accent.  (She thought Emily was poking fun at first with her own southern accent).  She made us feel so incredibly welcomed right off the bat, introduced us to everyone and getting us set up with shirts. 


Four houses currently being built, 2 single story and 2 double story.



Erin, Emily, Dena

One woman I wish we would have gotten a photo with was Judy.  Holy crap, this woman could run a site.  No surprise she was from New York and she sure as hell knew who, what, where, how and why she needed/wanted everyone and everything.  A woman in charge, demanding and certainly deserving respect, that was for sure.

At this point, we were asked if we knew anything about wiring and electrical work.  Upon answering no, Dena and Judy turned us over to Bo, the volunteer electrician.  Bo is a very jovial, older man in his 70's who had a passion for teaching us, and we were very honored by this.  In the first hour of being there, we were up on a ladder learning how to install fans.  Bo had us start from the very beginning, making sure we listened and learned each part of this process.  It was a very humbling experience.  And just when we thought our first fan was hung to perfection ......... it wasn't.

There seemed to be an issue with our fan being flush to the ceiling.  The issue was, well, it wasn't.  There was a small gap between the fan and the ceiling, so we took the fan apart to remove it from the ceiling and try to fix the problem. 

(This is where I want to interject and mention, I loved the fact that Bo had complete confidence in us figuring out the issue on our own, but always there for us if we had any questions.  There was never any hesitation, or "let me take care of it", it was simply you girls have the knowledge to do this.)

After removing the fan and adjusting some screws in the ceiling, we finally had the fan ready to go.  It was so hot in the house that we decided to keep the fan on after testing it.  We moved on to our next fan, when a short moment of silence hit and all we could here was a clicking noise in the fan we had just rehung.  It was taunting us.

Before long, it was unbearable to listen to.  Emily and I were back on the ladder, yet again taking down this fan.  No loose screws, no loose washers, just simply one of the wires brushing against a screw every time to fan would rotate.  Needless to say, after a few harsh words with the fan, the third time was a charm.  Better yet, Bo & Dena & Judy were right there to congratulate us.  Something so minor, yet something so heartfelt.

Wiring and Hanging fans, our first success

One thing that was truly awesome was the break time prayer and pledge of allegiance.  There was a delicious variety of breakfast foods, some homemade, and drinks provided on site for the break.  Prior to indulging, one of the team members blessed us with a prayer, which immediately led in to the pledge of allegiance aimed at a small flag they stood during the break. 

Daily prayer and pledge of allegiance



Our mentor Bo, behind the flag.
Beside him, Hal, a young 91 years of age.



What a great group...

After our break on the final day, Emily and I got to spend a lot of time with Bob, the resident contractor.  He had been observing in the morning, giving us pointers, but it wasn't until after break we really got to discuss the Sarasota Habitat community with him.  He was nice enough to also teach us a lot of about the wiring of the switches on the walls, and how exactly they run from the circuit box back to wall and up to the lights/fan.  Afterwards, he took us through the other homes being built next to the two we had been working on.  His level of passion and excitement really reflected the great pride he, the rest of the staff and the volunteers took in their responsibilities to building this community.



Emily, Dena and I with Bob before we left Sarasota.
Can't thank you both enough -- please tell Bo and Judy the same!

 It was interesting learning about the Sarasota Habitat, especially after coming from our first experience in Baton Rouge.  First and foremost, Sarasota had access to much more funding than Baton Rouge, specifically with the retired community, which seemed to provide them with many more volunteers on site as well.  The quality of materials were different than Baton Rouge, which again, the sponsors they were able to reach out to in Sarasota were more willing to donate if they built with better materials, specifically energy efficient ones.

Lastly, we were able to interact with a few of the future homeowners, who were on site.  They all knew each other, and beyond that, the families who owned the homes previously built in the small community knew each other as well.  These were families truly acting as a unified community, and that was pretty special to see. 

Two completely different experiences with very different people, learning different tasks, but still working towards one common goal...to help those in need.  The contrast in just these two builds alone really had me interested moving forward.  What will I expect next?  Wait and see.

Onwards to Wilkesboro NC, Beaufort SC and Gainesville GA...

Love from the road,
Erin

(Please see below for the only downer of this whole trip)

shit. mom don't look at this.