August 16th - Volunteer Spotlights

Contributed by Sue Ihlenberg (volunteer)

All of us in Columbia County are aware that two Habitat for Humanity houses are nearing completion on Mill Street in Hudson. One is a Traditional Build with men and women participating, and the other is Columbia County's first Women Build using only women volunteers with some professional men for certain aspects of the build. Both builds are being led by our Executive Director and Project Manager Debra Gestwicki, who has worked for Habitat for seven years. She is working closely with volunteers. According to her, this entire experience has been most enjoyable, with the volunteers being very enthusiastic and willing to learn new skills. The resulting quality of work has been outstanding. She is looking forward to completion with a celebration being planned to mark the new homeowners taking possession.

One important volunteer always found at the site, is Diana Coughlin, who is now in her third year as President of Columbia County Habitat. She is on site doing spackling as well as running out for donuts, and keeping the workers going with coffee. She said “I am absolutely overwhelmed with the support of the local community volunteers, corporate sponsors, and individual contributors in completing our Mill Street projects.”

Another volunteer for Women Build is Pat Wiswell, who retired this past May after thirty–four years as Professor of Economics, thirty of which were at Columbia Greene Community College. Having worked all of her life in a career where she felt she could make a difference she had a need to continue doing so. Last year, in preparation for retirement, she had gone online and found the website for Columbia County Habitat. A walk-a-thon was being done as a fundraiser, so Pat collected donations from her colleagues, did the walk-a-thon and went on to sign up to work on the build. She had such a positive experience gaining new skills and confidence in her abilities that she continued increasing her involvement by joining the Women Build steering committee and she is now a crew leader with a growing collection of her own tools.

Also on site is Katy Nichols of Kinderhook who works at the Coldwater Creek store in Colonie. She read an article in the paper which prompted her to call her nineteen-year old daughter at college to see if she would also be interested in helping. She signed them both up and has come eight or nine times during the build. "If I didn't have a real job I'd come during the week. When I walked into the house today and saw the rooms I felt like I was going to cry. First it was just a slab, and now to see it almost finished - it's like "our house". The feeling of ownership is a good feeling made all the more special because Chelsea and I got to share it. It was a great mother and daughter bonding experience." She was working with crew leader Babette on window trim this time and has done framing, hanging windows, siding, and sheet rocking. She acquired a new set of skills and thinks it's neat to know she can do these things. She wants tools for Christmas. Another neatest thing was developing new friendships. Coincidentally her daughter Chelsea was a student of Pat Wiswell.

The Women Build is the third Habitat build for Linda Paul who has had her own business as a cabinet maker for more than twenty years in Chatham. Linda always thought she would get involved with Habitat once her children were out of the house so this was perfect timing. Linda lent her skills to installing the kitchen cabinets. She said "It's been fun meeting other women experienced in building. I didn't know there were so many around. I also liked that the volunteers were excited to learn and liked learning non-traditional skills from another woman." The proud owners of the Women Build house are Musharruf Husain Khan and his wife Naz Nin Khan. They and their children are looking forward to moving in very soon. With the help of their family and friends they must put in four hundred hours of work. Musharruf has worked on framing, siding, painting, and was working on the porch this Saturday. These were all new experiences for him. He plans to use his newly acquired skills on the next Habitat build.

Next door at the Traditional Build, Karen and Scott Lisson from Manhattan are helping hang sheet rock. Karen biked cross country three years ago to raise funds for Habitat. As there are not many builds going on in Manhattan, they went online, found this build and have come up by train five times this summer. Also there is a group from Taconic of Germantown. Because of its generosity, Taconic is a partner of Columbia County Habitat. Denise Navins and Dave Lester organized volunteers for two days of work. Nancy Moore, one of those volunteers who considers herself a low skill person, was amazed at the skill level of some of her coworkers, learning alot from and about her coworkers.

Stacy Coons and her three children will be the very proud owners of the Traditional Build home. Stacy has done work at every stage of the construction of her new home. Her excitement has built right along with it. She is planning ahead to the landscaping, flower garden, color schemes, and everything connected with home ownership. She came in as a novice but has learned so much that she plans to help with next year's builds.