Har El volunteers build homes

KELLEY KORBIN

Congregation Har El has now officially ventured where no other local congregation has yet to go. Last week, 15 intrepid Har-Elians donned hard hats, steel-toed boots and work gloves and toiled for eight hours on a rare sunny day building town homes for the Greater Vancouver chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

With ages spanning 18 to 77 and a skill set ranging from "Which one is the screwdriver?" to "I once put together an Ikea bookshelf," our rather motley crew bravely followed our leaders – tikkun olam committee chair Jessica Eken, Rabbi Shmuel Birnham and, perhaps most importantly, Habitat for Humanity first aid guy Marvin - into a world of manual labor.

We shovelled gravel, painted walls and, in our most daring role, installed wall plates - which required the use of all manner of tools, including drills, saws and ratchet sets. We climbed ladders and erected scaffolding, all with the intention of helping to provide affordable housing.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that operates in more than 100 countries and has built about 200,000 homes – one every 24 minutes – since it was founded in 1976, including 900 in Canada.

The local chapter is currently constructing 27 town homes at a site in Burnaby and that's where we spent our day. Executive director Anneke Rees visited us during our coffee break and explained that, thanks to corporate donations and thousands of hours from volunteers like us, the society is able to provide affordable homes with zero-interest mortgages to low-income families who otherwise would never be able to get into the Lower Mainland housing market, one of the most expensive in North America.

"To qualify for a home, people can't be eligible for a conventional mortgage and have to be living in inadequate conditions," she said. They also have to put at least 500 hours of their own "sweat equity" – volunteer time – into building their home.

Rees said that working with Habitat for Humanity is extremely rewarding, not just because of the people who get homes, but also because of the volunteers she meets. "I meet fabulous people, many of whom sit in offices all day and then come out here and build," she observed. "It's a really positive, literally constructive, environment."

These sentiments were certainly shared by the Har El crew. All of us came away feeling that we had really contributed something important and lasting and, in one short day, we developed a real feeling of teamwork with our fellow congregants and the handful of other volunteers on the site. Eken was thrilled with the experience. "For me, the satisfaction is having everyone out here. They came, they created, they did it," she exclaimed.

And although she had virtually no construction experience when she arrived, after eight hours of painting and sanding, congregant Karen Hoffman reflected, "I felt useful. It was very satisfying and at the end of the day, you felt like you had accomplished something." Plus, like me, she loved wearing the steel-toed boots.

The only downside to the day was the porta-potty – but, upon reflection, it gave a real feeling of authenticity to our construction experience.

Habitat for Humanity is always looking for volunteers, especially crew leaders who can direct volunteers. For more information, contact Rees at 604-681-5618, ext. 22, or e-mail [email protected].

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