The tapping of hammers started at 7:08am. A brief break in the noise and the first wall was up by 7:45am. By 11am, all exterior and interior walls were up and volunteers were breaking for the day. Not even half the day was gone and a few volunteers could tell others they raised some wall to make a difference in their neighborhood that day.
A Habitat home wall raising is always a group effort. The City of Jurupa Valley’s Mayor Laura Roughton and City Council Members Frank Johnston and Michael Goodland reserved their Saturday morning to spend some time working for the community. Partner Laura Lopez with TORO showed up in a force with nine volunteers and the girls of the Habitat Dominguez family definitely put in the “Sweat” of Sweat Equity for the day. Even though it was blazing hot, everyone got a ton of work done and had a wonderful time. Not only was the Mayor, City Council and Toro there, But Keith Newel (our Energy Star inspector and his wife) were swinging hammers.
As these days tend to be a family affair, the Inland Empire Framing crew had the usual suspects of 5 volunteers and Brad brought his wife Theresa as always. Linda Pepenella (project manager Steve Pep’s wife) made sure everyone was hydrated by stuffing her tool belt full of water and distributing to volunteers the moment they paused to wipe a brow. And of course the day went much smoother thanks to the donated fuel; the volunteer day started off with Starbucks and finished with burritos from Rubio’s.
Thanks to volunteer photographer John Gerson and Habitat staffer Kristii MacEwen for taking a gazillion photos to show the involvement, the hard work and the victories.
