blog
like care bears, but cooler
posted May 2, 2012 by Marcelle |
last friday, 19 of us shut down our computers and picked up hammers, paint brushes and drills for a day with Habitat for Humanity of Greater San Francisco. we’ve partnered with them before because we believe in the great work they do in our communities. through their program, over 160 homes in the Bay Area have been built by volunteer labor to allow working families an opportunity to live close to their jobs in safe and permanent housing. go, Habitat!
currently the organization is working on their most ambitious project to date, a 36-unit development in Daly City. this is where we spent our day. most of us started out blurry-eyed, coffees in hand, but it wasn’t long after being outfitted in hard hats, tool belts, kneepads and other overzealous accessories that we got into the swing of things. after an introduction to Habitat from our project leader, Erin, and safety training from one of the AmeriCorps volunteers, we got to choose our jobs.
brian, our supply chain director, went to the roof solo to hammer nails all day (so he said anyway). our packaging engineers went to mud, tape and install sheet rock and a group of ops superstars installed ceiling sheet rock in another section of the building.
a sales and finance group went to install sheering on the exterior walls of one of the buildings. jim, our western sales director, even got to use a Sawzall (we never let him use power tools in the office).
the majority of us went to paint exterior walls, which meant spending the day on creaky scaffolding four stories in the air, holding on for dear life and painting and re-painting either yellow, light brown or dark brown. it was more fun than it sounds.
the complex will take over a year to complete, but we each did a small part to help make that happen. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between method and Habitat. stay tuned.
