“Habitat” For Little Ones

Habitat for Humanity is known for building simple, decent, and affordable houses for low-income families around the world. Lesser known is the fact that they are also building playhouses for good causes.

On February 9^th, 2013, 8 Lions and family members came together at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse in Milpitas (the place we used to do garage sales) to help build, under the tutelage of our instructor Larry, play houses for kids. Larry distributed work for everybody – Lions Steve and Walt put 12 roof halves together, with the insides painted sky-blue by Ray, Ellen or Dagmar. Lions Eli and Ray were the biggest noise makers, cutting openings into windows and doors with electric saws. Lions Amy and Bernie started painting walls inside and out, first walls for a light green house, then those for one in purple or mauve – we could not agree on the correct name of the color. (You can see Bernie being a double-fisted painter). Almost everyone had a go at painting walls, doors, ceilings, gables, support “beams” and solar panels – yes, each playhouse will feature one solar panel thanks to PG&E. Amy and Bernie put in overtime to finish the markings on the panels.

Habitat volunteers constructed 184 of these play houses last year for a total revenue of $ 185,000 (often in auctions) which is enough to build a big house. Putting a play house together is also used as a great way for team building in the corporate world (http://www.habitatebsv.org/Get-Involved/Business-Groups)

We might not have been the fastest group, but for sure had a lot of fun and are very proud of our accomplishments.

Contributed by Lion Dagmar