Veteran JCWP builder Tom, shares his wisdom with newbies!

Tom Dickinson was the 6A house leader at the San Pedro site whose advice to people wanting to get involved with JCWP is: "just come, get involved. You don’t need the know-how!" Tom is a Habitat For Humanity veteran who started volunteering for the Jimmy Carter Work Project in 1992 in DC; this years project was his sixteenth. Tom currently lives in Springfield, Virginia and volunteers with the Habitat affiliate there.
Tom’s favorite part of each Jimmy Carter Work Project is taking a quiet moment on a roof when all of the work is completed to survey the area. He said that being a small part of the end result and seeing a big sea of houses and knowing that he is helping towards changing people’s lives is what makes the biggest impact on him.

Birthday Present for these two ladies was working at JCWP

Through wind & rain, sleet or snow, blazing heat or bitter cold, Habitat will be there. Ok, so this week there wasn’t much rain, sleet, snow and the cold was only bitter during closing ceremonies, but Habitat was still here building away and so were we. Amber and I have been bff's since college and since our birthdays are only a week a part, we have celebrated them together every year since graduation no matter where we are living.

Here’s a little info on who we are, because we know you care.

Terri Ellen Waddell
# of Habitat Builds: Stopped Counting
Current Occupation: Is anyone hiring???? I used to work for Habitat Int’l
Favorite Color: Dirt on skin
Hard Hat Size: 7 ¼
Where she resides: Currently, anywhere she can find a friend with an open couch.
Favorite build site activity: drywall
Age: 26 & 364 days

Amber Leigh Skorczewski
# of Habitat: 3
Current Occupation: Marketing for Target Corporation
Favorite Color: Lip gloss with SPF
Hard Hat Size: 6 7/8
Where she sleeps: St Paul Minnesota. Amber just bought her first Home!!!!
Favorite Build site activity: Siding
Age: 26 & 7 days


When we heard that JCWP 2007 would fall during the week between our birthdays it seemed to be the only option for this year’s trip. We mean, what better way to celebrate another year of life than with former President Jimmy Carter, his wife Rosalynn and about two thousand strangers building houses in LA? If you and your bff had birthdays only a week a part from one another wouldn’t you want to do the same thing?
Off to our computers we went to get ourselves registered. Guess what… we were selected, so we jumped on a plane and flew out to LA to join the party.
Upon arriving we were assigned to “Media”. At first we felt a little bummed that we wouldn’t have a chance to wield a hammer or cut some siding, but it turns out that our assignment would give us a chance to not only check out both sights, but also do a million other super cool things. Check out some of our highlights below:

•Practicing our stern face. Which if you meet Amber, you know is for her.

•Sharing a laugh with former Mayor James Hahn while standing in line for opening ceremonies. If only we had known who he was while we were chatting with him.

•Getting secret service to crack a couple of smiles. We thought the stern face was one of the job requirements.

•Chilling with D.B. “ay papi, we luv u”

•Learning dance moves from 4 year old Kelis, She will soon be living in one of the homes that you all have been working so hard to construct.

•And many more that we are happy to tell you about next year in the Gulf.

We would like to give shout outs to the following who helped make our week even more memorable:

Emily & Sara and the rest of the Golin Haris Girls and guy, Little B, the bomb diggidy PR gal

Nancy & Carolyne (Pres. Carter’s right hand ladies)

All the Secret Service Men who got the memo on matching polos. #1 & #2 U guys ROCK

M&M of the Philly Soul- till we meet again

Dustin the bouncer at the door, we cant believe you made a walk up the hill so many times
Billy AKA Cookie Monster
Tom, if you ever need someone to touch your toes Amber is your girl
And of course all of the other volunteers, staff, and everyone else who helped make this event happen

As we drove to the sight this morning Amber, with her cheesey Hallmark emotional self turned to me and said that she had had a great birthday week. She said “ “This is the kind of present I really like--- they’re like memories, you can’t put a bow on that”

Thank you all and super special thank you to the homeowners for allowing us the chance to share this amazing time with you all. Blessings

See you all in the Gulf-
Terri and Amber

Jennika picks up her first HFH paint brush

Jennika volunteered during the last day of the JCWP, but she believes that it was an experience that she will never forget. It introduced her into the world of volunteering, and she got to understand why so many people love to volunteer! People love the feeling they get when they help others, and Jennika was no exception.

"I didn't really understand the full intensity of "habititus" before i volunteered for the JCWP. Its an indescribable feeling; a high that one gets from helping others. I wasn't sure that i was going to have a chance to volunteer because i was working as an intern for Starfish PR (who does PR for Habitat). But, when i found myself with some time, i decided to jump in and help because I didn't want to leave the site that day without at least picking up a paint brush. I worked up on the roof (of San Pedro house 6A), painting the front exterior siding; around me were big strong men. I was surprised how nice everyone was; they were all interested in getting to know me. Even though i only put in about 3 hours of volunteer time, that was long enough to catch "habititus." I will never forget my experience at JCWP 2007, and i look forward to volunteering in future projects!"

Shomari Davis is electrified by his JCWP experience

This is Shomari Davis’ first JCWP and his first time building with Habitat for Humanity. “I always wanted to get involved before, but I was always late!” he said. “This is a ground-breaking project, I’m proud to be here.”

Shomari works at IBEW, and his team has been putting all of the electricity and solar panels throughout the new homes. “The teamwork is phenomenal,” he said. “The volunteers are helping so much, putting the solar panels together so when we install them, everything is ready to go.”

Installing the electricity has allowed Shomari to meet quite a few of the Partner families. “I’ve talked to one family about the process and she was really excited, scared, but knew that she was headed in the right direction. I want to meet more of them.”

Shomari is surprised at the good feeling and the energy that everybody is bringing out. “The Collaborations are awesome. Knowing that you are doing something for people is awesome! Seeing the President come out as well as other people is so exciting.” Shomari was most surprised at his own feelings of gratification. “You are helping people, but you are also helping yourself.”

Janelle wants to give more than just a week to the JCWP!

Janelle Mitchelle (right) is an AmeriCorps volunteer from Altoona, PA. This is Janelle’s first JCWP but she is not here to just build homes, she’s here to build lives. Janelle has developed a program for the week to help teach literacy to the young children who’ll be living in these new homes. She believes she can help the families by entertaining their kids while they work on their home and she’s created some Dr. Seuss-themed tutoring programs with her.

Janelle, who studies in Santa Barbara, contacted Habitat for Humanity of Greater L.A. to ask how she could help with the children and explained her ideas. They loved it and here she is. Oh and she’s also pretty handy with a hammer!

She says she loves meeting people from all over because everyone has a great story to tell (we agree.) She also loves learning new things, like conquering the nail gun. “It’s intimidating and powerful, but empowering at the same time. It feels so good to be dirty.”

“I hope to create ongoing programs for the kids and plan to be down here several weekends a month to spend time with these children. Many of them just want someone to read with them so that’s what I’ll do.”

Citi here to help the City of Angels

Arpi is building with Habitat for the first time this week while Mayra has been doing it since 2005. They both work for Citi who is a proud sponsor of the JCWP here in Los Angeles. The ladies have been working hard all day on our San Pedro site, Harborside Terrace. In fact, for part of the day they have been painting a home directly across from former President Carter, who is equally hard at work.

“It’s so wonderful to be here,” said Arpi. “The homeowner is here building with us and seems so happy! It feels so good to help her and to make a difference in her life.”

Mayra is impressed by the huge presence of volunteers here. Her first experience was a local L.A. build with about 50 Citi employees, and today she’s met Citi employees from all over the world including Mexico, Korea and India.

Mayra had this to say about the experience: “Wow. This is a huge project and nobody is slacking off at all! It makes you want to work even harder. I love meeting the families and I am excited to be building their homes.”

When he's done on the roof, he'll start on the Flowers!

“I love meeting so many new people with common interests.”

Ryan is the dept. manager of Lawn and Garden for Lowe’s Long Beach and it’s his first JCWP. It’s a lot bigger than he thought it would be but he’s having a great time. He’s been painting, cleaning and framing windows since he’s been here.

With some construction experience, he says it’s been nice to share his knowledge with others who are building for the first time. “Seeing people out there with no building experience is great! From simple to complex, they are all doing it.”

When Ryan told his mom he’s been nominated to be one of the Lowe’s volunteers here this year, she was thrilled. “She started telling me that I’d see President Carter and all about the build, she knew more about it than I did and she was so happy! It got me really excited.”

Ryan is already planning to build with Habitat as often as he can locally…guess he’s got Habititis too.

17 years ago, The Berry's caught Habititis

Cindy and Don Berry are members of the largest church in San Diego, which organized support for the JCWP in 1990 to provide food and volunteers for the 2 build sites – Tijuana, Mexico and Encanto (East San Diego.)

Well, they caught the bug! They thought they’d wait till retirement to work with Habitat but they were not willing to wait and jumped at the next opportunity to volunteer. They speak about the 2 person tents and dusty bus rides from Tijuana to Encanto with smiles and laughter. Again we hear all about the lasting friendships of JCWP. One such

friendship is with the Schultz’s standing nearby today. The Berry’s are hear assisting with logistics, but they have served so many roles in years past including crew leaders and house leaders.

The Berry’s don’t wait to volunteer once a year with the Carters, they support their local affiliate in San Diego where Cindy helps with family selection.

“We love the friendship,” says Cindy, “we came here this week and are seeing old friends whom we haven’t seen since a build five years ago. It’s also about the diversity. I love to meet people from all walks of life.

“The homeowners are the best,” adds Don. “You can be the toughest guy on the job site and you’ll still cry when they hand them the keys.” (Side note: Don choked up while giving us this quote – go Don!)

Local Volunteers Welcome at JCWP 2007

That's right, we still have some volunteer opportunities for Angelinos to helps us! Please visit www.jcwpla.org to sign up.

You will build alongside some amazing folks like celebrities, dignitaries, volunteers from all over the world, sponsors, donors and families who are about to become homeowners in the worst housing marketing in the U.S.

You will be forever changed, you will forever change the lives of hard working L.A. families and you will catch HABITITIS!

Please join us!
www.jcwpla.org