Pete has been a part of the Geezer for a few years, having volunteered onsite once
and never looked back. Pete was recently awarded June Volunteer of the Month for
the Geezer Crew. We interviewed him to see what inspired him to volunteer, what his
favorite memory with the team is, and what he would tell others looking to volunteer
on a build site, but may be a little nervous.
Q: How long have you been with the Geezers, and what inspired you to join the crew?
A: The year after I retired, I signed up to work with Habitat for Humanity for a day here
and a day there. I had previously worked a few days as an IBM team building exercise.
The next summer, my first assignment was working with the Geezer team. At the end
of the day, Dick (project manager) told me I could come back anytime. I have been
coming back twice a week (give or take) ever since. At the end of this building season,
I will have helped to build one fourplex, one triplex, six duplexes, and one single-family
home for 20 different families.
Q: What has been your favorite experience with the team and Green Mountain Habitat
for Humanity thus far?
A: My experience has been uniformly positive, so I don’t know about favorites. Maybe
this. Working on constructing a house day to day, we focus on the next step that
needs to be done. Framing walls, setting roof trusses, putting up wallboard, installing
siding, trimming out windows, and so forth. The idea that we are doing all this work to
provide affordable housing for a family that otherwise might not have access to it
doesn’t often come up. However, that abstract idea becomes real when we work with
our partner families as we insulate the walls, install the hardwood floors, and paint the
ceilings of the house that they will be living in. That is certainly one of the highlights of
the job.
Q: What would you tell someone who is thinking about volunteering on a habitat build
site but is a little unsure?
A: Each time I arrive at the build site, Dick greets me with “Pete, thanks for coming”.
After greetings all around, I am given a task to do, or I find something I am comfortable
doing. When I started, I had no construction experience aside from a few home
projects I had done, so I was usually working with someone more experienced. As I
have now been through the building cycle a number of times, finding something I am
comfortable doing has gotten easier as I don’t always require that more experienced
person (though they are still there). At the end of the day, we all pitch in to clean up,
put away all our tools, and stack materials as needed to be ready for the next build
day. As I am leaving, Dick always says “Pete, thanks for your work today”. I don’t
remember getting that every day from my previous bosses
If you’d like to learn more about volunteering on our build sites, please visit vermonthabitat.org/volunteer or reach out to our Volunteer Manager, Caitlyn Conibear: cconibear@vermonthabitat.org.
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