91 Main Street, Falmouth

Marc Beroz (far right) Working on the Wall raising Day in Falmouth

In the fall of 2013, Marc Beroz saw an item in the newspaper about something called a "Wall Raising" at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Falmouth, and thought that might be a fun thing to do for a day. "Once I saw what was going on" Marc says, "I just kept signing up to work." He ended up as a regular volunteer at 55 Glenwood Avenue, working through the seasons until volunteer construction was completed last month. Marc said he came into the experience with few house building skills, but simply tried to do whatever he was asked, to help expedite the building process. Marc ended up doing everything from "pounding nails to digging holes, putting up clapboard to sanding walls."

Marc was a former soil scientist, and worked for the Federal government at sites in Utah and Wyoming before starting his own business in Connecticut in 1986. He retired to Cape Cod in 2012. He says that his work making soil maps was quite different from volunteering with Habitat. "I went into natural resources to be outside and I liked to work independently, but that has its down side. With Habitat, I went from working with no people to working with lots of people. It was quite an adjustment. I learned that working with volunteers is more than building. It's also discussion and exchanging ideas. That was a pleasant surprise. Whenever you are learning about other people, you are also learning about yourself - and it helps you grow as an individual."

Marc believes that the group of regulars who worked at Glenwood Avenue had a particular camaraderie, born of "working together in those really cold weather conditions we had. We would gather around the coffee pot, not just for the coffee, but for the heat! As a group, it knit us together more than you would expect."

Bonding with his fellow volunteers was one of the reasons Marc kept coming back to build, even in the freezing cold. The other was the homeowners who were so "appreciative of how everything is put together and how much time everyone spent. It was heartwarming to see how happy it made them. That motivated me to put in my best effort and to keep coming back."

Marc admits that he is a perfectionist, which can be both a blessing and a curse on a job site. He preferred to take his time in doing the job right, rather than rush to get it done. "Some of my best work is in places that you'll never see!" he says. It pleases him to know that, even if the work is behind a wall, the homeowners know the time and care that went into their home.

And Marc's advice for new volunteers? "You don't have to come with any skill set. You will learn on the job and anything you do will contribute to the goal of building the house. Any contribution you make benefits the lives of others and, in turn, enriches your own life. We each contribute a little, and it benefits a homeowner, and they go on to help the whole community."