Build-A-Thon 2011

Each year Habitat for Humanity International organizes a Build-A-Thon for its AmeriCorps members. For those of you not familiar with AmeriCorps, it is a service program similar to the Peace Corps, but in the states.  There are positions found many fields, not just Habitat. Habitat has about 450 AmeriCorps members serving around the United States.  Members commit their time to improving the community. I have been fortunate to serve as an AmeriCorps member since August and therefore had the privilege of joining 65 other Habitat AmeriCorps for a regional Build-A-Thon in Birmingham, Alabama. I have to admit when I first read that I would be going to Alabama to build I was less than thrilled. Shortly after receiving the notification that I would be headed to Alabama, the tornadoes ripped through the state causing massive destruction. Then I knew that we were headed to right where we needed to be.

We spent Monday conducting disaster relief in a suburb of Birmingham. I had never seen destruction like this before. Houses were completely destroyed, trees were blown over and uprooted, and cars were blown around.  The tornadoes took out everything in their path. It was mind boggling though because on one side of the road would be total destruction and on the other side of the road would be a house that was untouched.

The first that we worked on was a Habitat house that had recently been dedicated. The homeowner was still moving in and unpacking. She said that she had no idea that there was a tornado of that magnitude on the way because they have warnings fairly regularly, but they never amount to anything.  She said that she started to hear windows breaking, so she grabbed her 8 year old and 6 month old and stood in the doorway of her laundry room.  Luckily her house was still in one piece after the tornado passed.  We helped to fix broken windows, a broken door, and siding that was blown off and cracked. We also clean up debris that had been blown into her yard.

For the rest of the week, we worked on the Brush with Kindness project which is a part of Habitat’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. There is a theory that if you clean up a neighborhood, it will encourage others to clean up and reduce crime rate at the same time.  The theory was tested in NYC’s subway system. Each night the graffiti was cleaned up and painted over, in the end the crime rate fell.

The house was originally a pinkish/red and we painted it green

The almost finished product

It was interesting to see that after our neighbors say us painting and cleaning up a house, they came outside and started to clean up their yards and cut the overrun grass.  The program was working right in front of our eyes!