These Times: Habitat For Humanity Women Build

When I interviewed Marilyn Hattaway last month to introduce her to the community as the new development director of West Orange Habitat For Humanity, she was eager to share information about the May 13 Strong West Orange Women Build event.

It intrigued me, and I thought it might be something I would like to participate in. I've been around construction sites my entire life because Daddy owned his own company.

It also seemed like a good chance to make some new friends and get reacquainted with a program that I was involved in twenty-something years ago. I served on the board of directors for several years when West Orange Habitat was started in 1990.

I was there when we selected the first two families to receive homes, built side by side on Jefferson Street. I was there when these homes were dedicated and the keys were handed over to the excited homeowners — single mothers with young children whose futures suddenly seemed brighter.

I wanted to experience that feeling of being “there” again as folks saw their dreams become reality, so I signed up to be one of 25 Strong Women assigned to put the finishing touches on a Habitat house in Oakland.

Women interested in helping a mother attain her dream attended the “let's get pumped up and change lives” meet-up at the Habitat ReStore several weeks ago. This place is amazing; it's set up like a regular furniture showroom, except everything has been donated from people in the community. There are some nice pieces in the ever-changing display, the prices are right, and proceeds go right back into the nonprofit organization.

My first task was to set up a fundraising page, which I did, and multiple people came through for me, helping me surpass my $1,000 goal. That's the generous community we live in.

There was such a tremendous response from local women that Hattaway had to choose a second Habitat house for us to work on. Just around the corner from Kelly Arbogast's home is one on Postell Avenue that will belong to Elancie Pierre-Fils.

The day of the build arrived, and 40 women of all ages and incomes met in the front yard of Arbogast’s new house on West Henschen Avenue. We were all given T-shirts in support of the day, and just like a team roster, all of our names were printed on the back. Who doesn't feel empowered when their name's on a shirt?

A ladder-rigged sawhorse off to the side held 40 shiny pink hardhats, also bearing the name of the women.

We showed up in work clothes and with a “let’s get it done” attitude, ready to complete these two homes. A few male Habitat representatives were onsite, too, but we shooed them away from doing any real work.

This was our build, after all.

I worked on Piere-Fils’s house, taping up the front windows and painting the trim with Janet and scooping mulch into wheelbarrows with Jamie and Taylor. Others landscaped the front and sides of the home. At the other house, landscaping and painting were tackled. We accomplished a lot that day.

The two single mothers and their boys were there, too, eager to pitch in.

Kelly Arbogast, who has two boys, ages 12 and 14, has multiple sclerosis. She is unable to put in all of the required 300 sweat-equity hours on her home, so she has been working at the ReStore. Both of her sons will have their own bedrooms.

Elancie Pierre-Fils has one 12-year-old son. She said he is excited to have his own bedroom for the first time in many years.

The five-hour work session netted nearly $40,000 for West Orange Habitat for Humanity, which has built 34 houses in 27 years. The goal was $25,000.

What a wonderful community we live in. I would jump at the chance to help on another house project and make another family’s dream come true.

Contact Amy Quesinberry at [email protected].