“They’ve gotten about three times as much done in an hour as some volunteer groups get done in a day,” observed Tyler White, NOAHH Site Supervisor. “We need to get them on the roof with the Marines.”
Sixty Marriott Engineering volunteers worked on two homes on America St., putting up siding and raising walls, part of an ongoing and long-standing partnership between Marriott and Habitat for Humanity. For years, Marriott employees have volunteered with Habitat affiliate around the country, bringing people from around the world to improve the communities they visit or work in. Being engineers, they bring more to the site than the average volunteer.
“Not only do we have hard workers, but also problem solvers,” said Bradley Holland, NOAHH’s Construction Field Manager. “They’re already coming up with different solutions to common problems, figuring out how to measure and make plumb and make these houses really beautiful. We’re just giving them material, and they’re building on their own. It’s a great partnership to make our jobs easier and our houses better.”
In New Orleans, especially after Hurricane Katrina, Marriott has been a major supporter of NOAHH, sponsoring homes, volunteering on site, and even helping NOAHH recruit partner families. Currently, 14 of partner families are or were employed at a Marriott-owned hotel in the city, and nearly a quarter of all NOAHH partner families work in the hotel industry. All of this was made possible by the incredible support Marriott has provided for NOAHH over the years.
The Marriott Engineering volunteers had previously helped build Musicians’ Village, and many of the volunteers who joined NOAHH on site on Tuesday shared their memories of the city in the wake of Katrina.
“The city was in dire need of some housing,” said Dan Simorka. “It was still suffering from Katrina, as it still is today… It’s leaps and bounds ahead compared to what it was even a couple of years ago. We’re happy to help as much as we can.”