Don Murphy
January's featured volunteer is Don Murphy, a long time consturction volunteer with East Bay Habitat. Although Don has been volunteering regularly since 1995, it was just this past year at the 2004 Build-A-Thon that Don played a leadership role with EBH as a House Leader. Don will be featured in our next annual report, the following story is an excerpt from that interview...
Donald Murphy first encountered the addictive joy of volunteering for Habitat when he helped to frame six homes in a “Build-a-thon” over 4th of July weekend. Don has been involved with Habitat since 1995. In 2004, he became a House Leader and the fun really began. Although overseeing fifty volunteers was a challenge for Don, he took great satisfaction in the job. He enjoyed the opportunity to teach the craft of framing houses and also to participate in a “green building” project. In order to make the homes green (environmetally-friendly), Habitat builders place the studs further apart to save lumber and whenever possible, installs solar panels.Don was especially impressed with the Americorp members, who he describes as enthusiastic and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Don was often stunned at how quickly the volunteers worked. With so many workers on-site, the volunteers often formed an assembly line, making the process move very quickly. Occasionally Don would send a volunteer to the construction manager to ask for a tool that doesn’t exist, for instance a "board stretcher". Such pranks kept everyone smiling and lightened the daunting load of building six homes.Don’s belief in affordable housing for everyone motivates him to keep volunteering. He feels that Habitat is a great way for people to help take care of each other and he hopes to be a House Leader again. At the dedication, Don took great pleasure in watching the families receive keys to their homes.
If you could be any tool on the construction site what tool would you be?
A skill saw, it's the saw that built the West.
