This story was published in our 2015 Fall Newsletter.
It was a hot, sticky day in Anniston, Alabama in 2003 when Mica DeAngelis and Barry Mansfield worked on their first Habitat home as part of a Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. Each year since 1984, former President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, give a week of their time to help Habitat affiliates around the world improve and build homes. The Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project helps raise awareness of the critical need for simple, decent and affordable housing and attracts volunteers from around the world.
Friends had urged Mica and Barry to get involved with Habitat after they had successfully built their own cabin in the mountains of Vermont and they were hooked on their first day.
Mica said “Barry had just retired as a college administrator at UVM and I could take two months off from my position with CCV, and we wanted to do something helpful with our retirement. So we thought we’d help build a house for a family. We’ve been very lucky and wanted to give back.”
Now both retired, they spend their winters traveling to Habitat sites around the U.S. in an Airstream trailer with other members of the “RV Care-A-Vanners”, a volunteer program for anyone who travels in a recreational vehicle, wants to build Habitat houses and have fun doing it. Mica estimates that they have worked on 100 Habitat houses in 10 states including Hawaii. Their favorite builds are working with college students during spring break.
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and many areas of the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, Mica and Barry headed to New Orleans, for their first of five trips there, staying in special camp grounds set up for volunteers by churches in the area. The first visit to New Orleans was spent cleaning out homes wearing hazmat suits to protect them from the pollutants in the water and mud. On their second trip they worked on rehabbing damaged homes and on their remaining three visits they helped build new homes. The next five years were spent building and rehabbing homes in Florida with their fellow Care-A-Vanners.
Mica and Barry also continued their volunteer efforts with the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project including stints in Los Angeles, Thailand, New Jersey (after 2014’s Tropical Storm Sandy) and this fall they are heading to Pokhara, Nepal for a seven day build from November 1-6. Mica stated that “Thousands of volunteers take part in the international projects and can build 80 houses in a week!”
In addition to all the US and international volunteer trips they have done, Mica and Barry also help Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity build homes for local families! Barry has worked on at least three homebuilding sites in Chittenden County and has also been a site supervisor for our Women Build event. And Mica volunteers at the Green Mountain Habitat ReStore in Williston one day a week. She said, “We are (Habitat) mission-driven, and we know that whether I help customers buy a couch at the ReStore or Barry helps build houses, we’re helping families. When you work with the families to build their homes you really understand the impact that having a Green Mountain Habitat home will have on them, especially on their children.”
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