We are nearly finished with our part in sidewall shingling "Peter's House," a group home which will offer programming, support, and services to individuals with disabilities and life challenges. This will be a home to five women currently living in a group home in Hyannis that lacks the handicapped accommodations they desperately need. The project, brainchild of longtime Habitat volunteer Ralph Specht and his wife, Ann - whose son, Peter, has special needs - is designed to raise awareness about the need for homes like these. An article in the Falmouth Register about Peter's House can be found here. Photos from the build can also be found on our website.

Mitzvah Day

Eight members of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation, including four teens, spent a few hours on May 5th helping landscape 24 Russell Road as part of their Mitzvah Day - a day of service. As the Congregation's website describes it:  "Jewish tradition instructs, "You are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it." (Pirkei Avot, 2:21) Some 80 FJC members gathered on May 5 for our annual Mitzvah Day, a chance to engage as a community in tikkun olam / repair of the world. The power of working together was palpable. Aside from the effective and meaningful work accomplished for a wide variety of organizations, this day of mitzvot brought new friendships among members of all ages."

Congregants were offered a choice of one of ten projects, designed to enable everyone to participate - from the most active, to members who wanted a seated activity. Habitat is honored to have been chosen as one of those projects. For an article in the Cape Cod Times about the day, click here. 

Disaster Relief Trip

Eighteen men and women from Northside United Methodist Church and Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod under the leadership of Dr Fred Yarger, Pastor Emeritus of Northside UMC, loaded their bedrolls, tools and Northside's emergency response trailer on May 5th and headed to Atlantic City to help in recovery efforts there.  

In passing, the exterior of the homes looked to be undamaged. But once you entered into the homes, you saw the results that three or more feet of water caused.   Everything below at least a four-foot level had to be removed and replaced due to mildew and mold damage or prevention. For a week, eight hours a day, the four teams of men and women mudded walls, sanded, primed, painted, laid sub and finish flooring, put up all types of trim, reinforced the understructures, replaced doors, repaired electrical problems, and numerous other jobs to bring homes back to livable conditions. Photos from the trip can be found on our website.

It is hoped that other teams will respond to the call all across the coastal area of NJ and NY where thousands of homes exist in the same or worse state of repair. To date, the response has not been overwhelming in relation to the recovery needs. Teams are needed everywhere along the coast.

Team members were: Wade Barstow, Ken Durst, Mark Reed, Steve Whitcomb, Dr Fred Yarger, Kim Stevens, Roger Stevens, and Faith Stevens from Northside UMC. From Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod, the team consisted of Fred Thimme, Fred Dempsey, Howard Taubner, DJ Sullivan, Russ Stockwell, Dick Roberts, Joan McCarthy, Dan Bermingham, Frank Agnes and Frank Almeida. Thanks goes to Habitat and Northside UMC for funding the teams in the recovery effort.

Disaster relief article thanks to Fred Yarger

Barry getting ready to secure the wall

Barry Clickstein will be the House Leader for our first build of the 2013 season: numbers 6 and 9 Park Place, Mashpee, due to start in June. Barry has been volunteering for Habitat since 2007, and has been both a House Leader and a Crew Leader.

Barry's grandfather, a finish carpenter from Russia who founded the Jewish Carpenter's Union in Boston, is the one Barry credits for passing on a "gene" for his love and talent for working with wood. "I love taking a pile of wood and making something." Barry's military background as a crew chief and jet bomber also helped to firmly set his mechanical skills in place. Barry says he was always fixing things around the house and working on "a honey-do list." So at age 65, when he found himself casting around for something new to do after 40 years working in various aspects of the health care industry, his wife, Iris, headed him toward an item she'd noticed in the paper: a "meet and greet" for a Habitat build. Barry went, and met all the families. When it came time to sign up for specific tasks that interested him, he "signed every sheet." Barry takes great pride in the houses he's helped build since then. He likes to see that the homes are taken care of and visits them from time to time.

Barry says there are two reason he builds with Habitat. The first has to do with the volunteers he works alongside. "I have met and made the most incredible friends in the six years I've been involved, and I can't say enough about them. We have a commonality - we're doing what we do because we love it. No matter what you did in your life or how much money you have, we're all here for the same reasons." The second reason Barry builds with Habitat is because of the home purchasers themselves. " Working with the homeowners, seeing them put in their sweat equity, and ultimatly giving them the keys, it feels pretty good." In fact, Barry sites the moment when the homeowners are handed the keys to their new house as the highlight of a build for him.

Habitat, Barry says, has launched his volunteer career, as he now gives his time to other organizations as well. He encourages new volunteers to get involved. "Everybody doesn't have to know how to hammer a nail or paint to volunteer with Habitat. Participation in any way makes you part of the team."

Be a part of the Habitat team! To volunteer, contact Dawn Walnut at dawn@habitatcapecod.org or 508-362-3559 ex. 16.