Lucy McNamara is an administrative coordinator at Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center. To date, she has participated in four volunteer Build Days at Esperanza Place. She reflected on her volunteer experience and how it has felt to see the site transform:
“Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity started as one more thing where I could contribute and be a part of something, like a good Taurus!
I have always liked to help and fix things… but it is a very pleasing feeling to do things for someone that you don’t even know – very much like when you donate blood. It is a thankful feeling because you have “this” that you can give to someone without any strings attached, just because you can and want – a very powerful combination!
Seeing the progress in Esperanza Place has been amazing… all that has literally been built with the effort of so many: every nail, every broom, every window. Esperanza Place has also given me the chance to meet many others from the organization that I would have never met otherwise.
You think you’re going there to give, but at the end of that day, you go back home so tired and so full of happy feelings! You’ve learned new skills, like for me, I had never done the roofing tiles and I found it to be so wonderful that it is me, who is putting that roof on, measuring the tiles, making sure you are using the right size of nails in each section…and do all without caring if it’s too hot or too cold outside because you are on a roll!”
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