RV Hometown

Why RVers Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity

Paul and I built custom homes in our free time before we became full-time RVers. It was something we enjoyed doing, especially Paul, so we dreamed of including Habitat for Humanity in our full-timing lifestyle. Our desire has been to hook-up with the Habitat Care-a-vanners where we could:

Unfortunately that hasn't worked out for us yet. Instead we have had to go out and find our own builds to work on.

During the winter of 1998-1999, as Disney Volunteers, we helped with Kissimmee, Florida's first build. Paul's experience quickly put him in a leadership position and even triggered a local TV news interview.

In December 2000 we volunteered at the Yuma, Arizona Habitat build. At the time they were building only one day a week and we were looking for a place to spend several weeks on site building. One RVing couple at the Yuma build told us how Tucson, Arizona had lots of homes under construction and a place for us to park. We e-mailed them at hfht@mindspring.com, got the information we needed and decided to spend a month there starting in February 2001. We are three weeks into this build as I write this article.

Since we have also wanted to do a build with other Boomers (a young full-timers subgroup of Escapees RV Club) we put the word out that we were doing this build and invited others to join us. Five couples did and share why they volunteered for this project below.

This build has been the most rewarding of the Habitat builds we have done to date. Spending so much time on a project has allowed us to contribute a continuity that is lost when different volunteers show up each day. It has been rewarding to see huge accomplishments in a very short time. The opportunity to work with other RVers and Boomers made the work fun.

Overall the Tucson Habitat for Humanity staff has been a joy to work with and very appreciative of our efforts. Even the long time volunteers make an effort to thank us for our contributions. By the way, when I talk about long time volunteers I have to mention Perry. He has been volunteering for Habitat in Tucson 11 months a year, 5 days a week for 10 years! It isn't often you meet people who make that kind of commitment! He also oversees Camp Habitat (as we call it) providing keys and delivering mail to the other RV volunteers.

The only disappointment we have experienced is the families receiving the homes have not been very visible and when they are on site we have not been brought together to bond in the experience.

Here is what the other RVers, who tagged along with us to Tucson, have to say about why they volunteer.

Ron & Anne: We are on a wonderful long vacation and miss contributing to the community like we did at home. Being from Newfoundland, Canada we didn't know how we could contribute. So when the Boomers started planning to volunteer for Habitat in Tucson we jumped at the opportunity. It is a shame when people have knowledge, talents and experience that go unused. It is a good feeling to participate and it fills a need for us.

Bill & Gisela: Habitat is something we have wanted to do since being on the road. We have the time and we would like to give something back.

KP & Joanna: We want to give back to the community because we have been so blessed in our lives. We lived on the gulf coast for years and had planned to assist with hurricane recovery last fall, but there were no hurricanes. When the Tucson Habitat opportunity arose we had some time and decided to join in. We like that Habitat is helping those that help themselves.

Ron & Ginny: We volunteered for the Tucson Habitat build to help others. It also reminds us why we don't want a house! It has been nice meeting other people. The build has not been like a job, we do what we can and have no boss to contend with.

Gloria & Charlie: We recognize wandering around the country doing what we want to do is self centered so feel a special need to give back to the community. Giving back has always been a part of our lives. We initially became aware of Habitat in the Watts area of LA, but could never help because of work. Paul and Stephanie told us about the project and we jumped right in. We now know how to find other Habitat projects.

And after a long day it is time to clean up...

Paul and I will be returning to Tucson to help with Habitat in the future. Will we meet you there?

If you would like to volunteer with Habitat in other areas go to www.habitat.org/local/ to find out where the projects are and get contact information.