Resident helps Habitat

Dwayne Hunn from Mill Valley joined former United States President and Nobel Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, in Anniston , Ala., and LaGrange and Valdosta, Ga., during Habitat for Humanity International’s Jimmy Carter Work Project 2003. In Alabama, volunteers built 92 houses in one week.

The three Habitat work sites hosted more than 4,000 volunteers building homes in partnership with 92 new homeowners and their families during the’ week of June 6 through June 13. In addition, hundreds of volunteers nationwide built homes that week in support of the JCWP 2003, raising the number Habitat houses completed in one week’s time to 104.

“None of the more than 600 La Grange, Georgia volunteers who built 19 homes in seven days will ever forget that first day,” said Hunn. “It rained four inches on June 7, turning the site into a Georgia red-mud swamp. ~The tons of spread hay and walking planks helped little and each mud caked work boot seemed to weigh 12 pounds, yet no one quit and only jokes were issued as complaints. The Habitat safety rule to quit after an hour of rain was ignored. Our house even got all its trusses up on that rain day. Six days later all the houses were done, except for the punch list.: This was an, exceptional battalion of people who reflected the best of America’s can-do, barn raising spirit. And the logistics and supply line reminded you how productive and resource blessed we are. A lot of little kids are going to have a much richer environment from which to compete in life.

“Millard Fuller and Jimmy Carter do the world a wonderful service.”

This is Hunn’s third Habitat project, having done Global Village builds in Sri Lanka and Fiji.

“We are grateful to Dwayne for giving his time to help a family in need have a safe and decent home,” said Millard Fuller, president and founder of Habitat for Humanity International. “The group’s success depends on the generosity of volunteers to change the world one family at a time.”

This is the 20th year in which the Carters have built in partnership with families •in need of simple, decent housing. Since 1984, the Carters have personally worked on homes that house more than 2,000 families around the world in communities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Hungary and South Africa.

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has built more than 125,000 houses worldwide for families in need. The Jimmy Carter work Project 2004 will be held in Mexico.

“We are excited about the growing global effort to alleviate the curse. of homeless-ness,” said Carter. “Habitat for Humanity has successfully removed the stigma of charity by substituting it with a sense of partnership. The people who will live in the homes work side by side with the volunteers. The experience broadens everyone’s perspectives.”