One of the most important parts of any affiliate is its core volunteers. They are volunteers who donate their time and hard work to building homes, helping in the ReStore, or assisting in the office. The construction core volunteers are essential for leading other volunteers and supporting site supervisors with their experience and familiarity with the local builds. During Build-A-Thon, NOAHH’s core volunteers have gone above and beyond in contributing their time and energy to making the event a success. Andy Schroeder is out giving guidance and sharing his expertise, the USMC is bringing their disciplined commitment to building during both weekends and evenings, and former board member and longtime supporter Dennis Kehoe has been on site.
Richmond Slocombe has been a core volunteer for nearly two years now. Stationed in Belle Chasse with the National Guard, his role is logistics and training, and he found himself looking for a place to use his construction skills. Having volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in college, he decided to give it a try with NOAHH and found he enjoyed it. Teaming with one of NOAHH’s site leaders, he began showing up most weekends to put in a few hours of work. Since then, he’s lost count of all the houses he’s worked on with NOAHH.
“I tried it and I liked it,” he said of becoming a core volunteer. “I enjoy what I’m doing, but it’s always better when I meet the person who’s going to live [at the house]. I can see he’s a good guy, that he has a good family, and they’re good people. It makes me feel even better.”
When he heard about Build-A-Thon, he decided to take leave for all ten days so he could help out. So far he’s found he enjoys the structural part of building, but he also looks forward to seeing a whole house from start to finish. His schedule has made it such that there are still parts of the process he’s yet to see, and the chance to learn more appealed to him. He’s also looking forward to sharing his expertise with the visiting AmeriCorps members and others on site.
“Being a part of 10 houses in 10 days had a real appeal for me. I decided to do it so I could say ‘yeah, I was part of it,'” he said.
