Media Coverage - Habitat Build

A Village Soup article (2/18) about the MAR Habitat Build in Mobile starts with this ....

"As Pete Wood boarded a plane bound for Alabama, he remembered the support Maine received from people all over the country during the ice storm that blew through the state 10 years ago. 'That's what I thought about on the way down there,' said Wood, a real estate agent with Town & Country Realtors in Belfast. It's so good to be able to give back.' "

More Media Coverage - Habitat Build

A Bangor Daily News article about the MAR Habitat Build, quotes Mary Kuykendall and JoAnn Higgins.

"Charity work is more rewarding when you physically take part in a project, Kuykendall said. While it was refreshing to help a family, the destruction of Hurricane Katrina is everywhere. There is no rubble cluttering the roadsides and most of the destroyed homes have been cleared away, but there is emptiness ... ‘The devastation,’ as they call it, is still very apparent ... There are driveways going off from the roads, but they lead to nothing."

A Village Soup article (1/29) quotes Marsha Steinglass, "In the end, all this work, camaraderie, sunshine and joy of life will bring a home to Natasha and her daughter ... The work of Habitat for Humanity, the Realtors on this build and the people of Maine who helped to make this trip happen all contributed to make this world a better place, a world where people care, give and act on behalf of one another."

Note: Click the Flickr icon on the blog to see 705 pictures from the Build.

Media Coverage - Habitat Build

Television stations WCSH (6) in Portland and WBLZ (2) in Bangor interviewed Paul Trowbridge and Steve Joy on tonight's news. Video also posted on their sites. Includes pictures and videos Paul took during the Build, and great display of our REALTOR blue shirts!

The Camden Herald (1/24/07) included a front page photo of Vicki Doudera, Marsha Steinglass, and Pete Wood from the Habitat Build.

Media Coverage and Message from Gail

Here's a recent media report in Camden featuring local builders and sponsors.
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This message from Team Leader Gail Rizzo: To our Sponsors - thank you for making the dream a reality. To the REALTOR team - I was amazed and grateful how 19 people who did not all know one another at the start, worked side by side with so much success. Building from the slab up, we turned a concrete slab into a home. Thank you for being so great to work with - and for the care and hard work you put into the Build. This is one trip that will be remembered for a lifetime for me, and I hope for all of you.

Media Coverage

The Mobile Press-Register newspaper has front-page story in Sunday Real Estate section entitled "The Maine Event", relaying the Maine Association of REALTORS Habitat builders, plus 3 pictures - 2008 MAR President Patti Lawton, Debbie Marathon and Carol Minnehan-Lee.

Homeward Bound and Congrats

JoAnn reports: I was one of the unlucky people who had their Saturday flight through Atlanta canceled, so stuck in Mobile until Sunday at 6:45AM. Carol and Paul rescheduled to 10AM Sunday so we had a rainy day in Mobile with no car. Took a cab to see a movie and walked a half mile for dinner at Panera Bread.

At the airport I bought a Mobile Sunday Press-Register newspaper because front page of the Real Estate section had an article on our Build. Found other interesting articles - one on a Habitat house being built for a Headstart preschool teacher by high school students. Several articles about Mardi Gras - one gave information about the expense these mystic societies incur putting on parades, mostly for "throws" which are beads, stuffed animals, moon pies, or commemorative coins. Oh yes, and the ball that Deb got smacked with. Apparently the paper has an ongoing feature called "Eyesores of the Week" showing pictures of properties with excessive trash/junk AND naming the property owners!

Atlanta still had snow on the ground but planes flying with no weather issues. About 25 minutes to flight time, I realized at wrong gate - made a mad dash and made it. Arrived in Bangor and learned a troop plane there - so looked for my friend Kay Lebowitz, who's a troop greeter. Kay is there day or night when a plane comes in and she is 91! I stood with her as we applauded troops back to their plane going to Texas and home!

I've been hearing from many people who have followed our adventure through the blog. And what an adventure it was. I met a lot of great people from a lot of different places: fellow Mainers, Kevin from Australia, the Habitat crew from Mobile, the Americorp kids from many places, members of the Alabama and Mobile Associations of REALTORS who wined and dined us royally, and Habitat families who will live in the houses including our Habitat mom, Natasha.

It was hard work but it was fun work. And very meaningful work. It's one thing to send money to help, which is important, but to be able to do something to help hands on is great! We got thank yous from so many people not involved with the build. My cab driver yesterday morning said it was a blessing that we came down to build a house for Natasha and her baby.

Thank you so much to everyone who made if possible for us to do this and for me to be a part of it! My mother has watched me do projects and keeps telling me I could probably build a house. Now I know I could, with a lot of help from friends. Beware if Mary invites the Habitat team to come visit her property in Lubec and suggests we bring hammers!

From Ken DelVecchio, President of the Connecticut Association of REALTORS: Would you please pass along this CONGRATULATIONS to the entire Maine Habitat Team for the job they just accomplished in Mobile. I have enjoyed reading all their comments and seeing the pictures of the work at “their home” in Alabama. It brought back so many wonderful memories of a year ago. They have just accomplished something that so few actually ever get to do, help someone else in need. I am sure their memories and the new friendships they have made will last with them forever. For many this will be a “life changing “experience. My best regards to all.

Note: MAR thanks Ken too for sharing his advice and experiences with our team before the trip.

Bart reports: I'd like to reiterate Mary's thoughts - this was an absolutely AWESOME journey the 19 of us shared. Having had the opportunity to travel extensively in my life, this particular trip will rate very high on the remembrance scale! I too would like to heartfully thank my family and sponsors for allowing me this opportunty. Without their patience and support this would have been much more difficult.

I awoke Friday to undertake my side trip to sunny Florida only to be greeted by torrential rains and wind. Eventually I staggered downstairs with the luggage and out into the rain. I stopped briefly to chat with Patti and Deb. Deb had driven from Maine and was procrastinating a bit about the morning drive in such terrible weather. I underestimated how far it is from Mobile to Tampa and quite dismayed to learn it's 500 miles - so much for advance planning! Arrived in time for a tornado watch. Seems like many of us will remember this experience for some time to come -and that includes the travel woes.

Journeys and Destinations

Mary reports: Friday dawned sunny and bright and nippy. We gathered in the lobby, munching on the bagels, boiled eggs, juice, coffee and cereal we'd enjoyed all week and tried to focus on the day ahead and not on the fact that this was our last day of work.

We got to the site a little earlier than usual and began finishing up some chores from Thursday while awaiting the arrival of the shingles which would be delivered via conveyor to the roof. Once they arrived and were stowed along the ridge line the roof crew went up to begin, what turned out to be, for me at least, the most fun job of the week--nailing on the lovely gray architectural shingles. We began with a line of about 12 of us laying and nailing (6 nails per shingle) courses of them starting at the edge and moving backwards up the roof. Once we got the first 6 or 7 courses on we had the option of changing sides from sliding backwards on our rears up the roof or moving to the downward side and working on our knees facing the shingles. I tried the downside for three courses but found that, being left-handed I was constantly working across myself as the nailing was going left to right. I changed and finished my stint of nearly four hours on the upper side. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The siding was beginning to go up, and everything was looking really good. We had been told by the Habitat supervisors on site that we had done excellent work all week.

About 10 o'clock the first of our group, Tom, Vicki and Pete, were taken to the airport by Gail. We waved to them from the roof and began to feel that we were actually going to have to leave this place which had become so familiar to us during this week and which we had begun to refer to as "our house".

After the lunch break Gail took Joanne W., Callie and me back to the motel to shower and gather our things in preparation for getting a cab to the airport for our 2:40 flight.

I really hated to leave, as did the other early departers. We had tried to change our tickets in order to stay as long as we could, but things didn't work out so that we could do that.

As we got into the Friday midday traffic, Gail was fearing for our ability to get cleaned up, catch a cab and get to our plane on time; so she declared that if we could do all we needed to do in the motel and be back out front in "Fifteen minutes, ten would be better", she'd wait and take us to the airport. I don't know about the others, but I have little or no memory of the burst of energy which propelled me into my room and shower and somehow had me stuffing my suitcase in the back of Gail's car in the time she'd given us. We weren't sure that the fact that Gail had not removed her hard hat during the trip in to the motel and was still wearing it was any indication of the kind of ride we were in for or not, but she got us there with time to spare, and we made our flight to Atlanta.

This proved to be the easy part of the day.

We arrived in Atlanta and saw Callie on her way. She had a flight to Portland from there, but we were scheduled to go to Detroit, then to Bangor, arriving in Bangor at 11:05 pm. Wanna bet?

Walking down the line of gates we passed Pete going the other way. He was, it turned out, on our flight to Detroit. After getting something to eat, we waited for the flight to Detroit.

On arriving in Detroit, Joanne and I checked with the attendant at the gate for directions to our connecting flight and were told there was no problem in our making the connection and given directions to the gate. When we got to the gate, Pete was there as well as Tom who had arrived from his flight to Houston!

All was under control, we were assured. No one had announced our flight. Pete had been there for ten minutes and Tom for 15-20 minutes. After waiting for about ten minutes more, the lady sitting down the row from Pete asked if we were going to Bangor, and when we said we were, she said, "That flight's already gone."

Anyway, everyone can tell horror stories of traveling these days, and we won't cry on your shoulder. The upshot of it is, we spent the night in Detroit, courtesy of Northwest Airlines and arrived, rested and resigned, if a bit ragged around the edges, at 3:30 this afternoon.

The week was, and those of you who know me, know I rarely, if ever, use this term---"Awesome"!

I heard several people say it changed their lives. It is hard to put into words the emotions that were experienced and the depths of ourselves that we discovered.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who sponsored me and supported me with your thoughts and encouragement and prayers and financial backing. Thank you also to MAR for giving us all the impetus to do this work and to NAR for challenging us to do it. And I thank Habitat for being there and for helping me see what I could do when motivated and when I truly have a purpose.

Mary Kuykendall is 2008 president of the Bangor Board of REALTORS

Day 5 - What we accomplished

Sweet Home, Alabama

Our Team Leader: Thank You Gail

Special thanks to Gail Rizzo. As 2006 MAR President, she accepted the NAR challenge to raise $70,000 for a "Maine home" for a Katrina victim. She agreed to be a Global Village team leader, went to meetings in DC, organized fundraising, found sponsors, coordinated with Habitat and NAR, collected stacks of forms, shopped for supplies, and participated in the Build. One yes ultimately led to Natasha's new home.

Note: Gail is a REALTOR in Belgrade Lakes

Day 5 - We made a difference ... and departures

Bart reports: WOW, what an experience this has been! From an extraordinary group of 19 individuals with little in common other than being Realtors (or connected to Realtors), and dedicated to making a difference for at least one family, we HAVE made a difference.

A tough day for those of us with a minor fright of high places! I spent almost the entire day on the roof installing shingles - a new experience for me (and a bit painful). JoAnn spent the day above as well, and Mary too before having to head for home. The rest of the group stuck to both feet on the ground installing siding and trim and such. Our little group became smaller during the afternoon as half of the group had returning flights. We missed them!

The remaining 10 of us trudged home later than normal and a bit more tired as well, but it's a good tired - the accomplishment tired.

Five of us ventured into the heart of the city to witness Mobile's Mardi Gras parade. It turns out that Mardi Gras began in Mobile, not New Orleans (did any of you know that?) The parade and excitement around it were fantastic. Streets filled with thousands of rowdy fans and lo and behold a young lady right beside me will be working on "our home" soon. She's a high school sophomore here in Mobile and will earn community service hours for her college applications - such a small world.

While downtown the bad news started - several members had flights canceled tomorrow due to stormy conditions throughout South. Working on getting new flights.

That's it for now - An incredible week with an incredible group of new friends working together on an incredible project. Who could ask for more!

Day 5 - Leaving Our Mark

Sherry reports: Met our homeowner Natasha who works at Sears parts department and sends many things to Maine. From Krista, a hardworking Americorp Volunteer, to Justin and Craig, our local Habitat leaders on their 1st solo house - working alongside REALTOR diehards to the end. Here's picture of graffiti left above front door inside. Maine Association of REALTORS - 1/13/08 - 1/19/08.

Note: Thanks Sherry Gregory, photographer for many photos. She's 2008 president of the MAR Foundation; and a REALTOR in Winthrop.

Third Group Pic - with our homeowner Natasha

Day 5 - Last Day and Meeting our Homeowner

Jeremy reports: Entire trip was very rewarding, from the general feeling of helping others to actually being able to do more around my own home. Met the homeowner today, a very warm young lady (and new mother) Natasha who was helping clean up around the home. She already met her 500 required hours to move into a Habitat home but there to help.

Worked on siding all day; and used a nail gun for 4-5 hours. The siding we put up was some kind of cement so a nail gun is the only thing that would penetrate it; and after a few early mishaps we really got the hang of it and were commended by the Habitat crew for accomplishing as much as we did. Unfortunately, one of those commending us was wearing a NY Yankees t-shirt. I think it's safe to say he regretted that decision.

Getting to meet and bond with a dozen or so new Realtors was great bonus I never counted on; and there's no question that a group of 19 people who are motivated and hard workers truly can accomplish a lot.

I think for all that we gave to Natasha, the experience provided us with so much more - learning about each other, learning how a home is built, learning how to work together, and maybe even learning that Alabamians (or whatever they call themselves) are willing to fry anything that will stay still long enough.

Day 5 - Early morning reports

Bart reports: Good early morning all - Day 5 is here and we wrap up today. It appears to be sunny out there but on the cool side again. Rain predicted for late today with snow just an hour north of us. It will be the last push this morning for a number of our Team but the rest of us will stick it out to the end of the day. Not sure what exactly is on the agenda today but suspect it involves siding and roofing. This has been a truly worthwhile endeavor and a wonderful bonding session with my fellow dedicated Realtors.

Time to put on those boots with their red stained soles - amazing what this red dirt/mud does to you!!

Jeremy reports: Today we will continue to work on the roof, to include shingling and the like. About half our team from Maine is heading home today but still coming to the jobsite to help until the last possible minute. The Mobile Association hosted as us at their gorgeous building last night; and we were told the only way to "insult the cook is to not go up for seconds or thirds..."

Note: Bart Stevens is a REALTOR in Winslow and past treasurer of MAR. Jeremy Payne is Government Affairs Director for MAR.

Day 4 - What we accomplished

Mary and Bart hammer, Mobile buffet

Day 4 - Staying on Target

Mary reports: Well, today was a big day. We arrived at the site a bit earlier than usual and in very chilly weather. Those work gloves and carpenter's aprons provided much-welcomed extra warmth.

We broke into teams of 2 and began putting baffles up under the eaves and doing other chores including cutting out the doorway 2 x 4s so the nearly 2 inches of rain collected there yesterday could be swept out in an attempt to start the drying out process. Drip boards were installed around the edges of the roof. Who knew this would be such an exacting job?

Bart and Paula did a tremendous job and showed us all what the term "patience of a saint" really means.Vicki and I finished the fiberglass wrapping of the rear exterior wall above the porch and shed. Those extension ladders go up really high, I discovered. It was fun and a real sense of accomplishment overtook me when I finished.

The Habitat crew kept us busy with a variety of tasks which took us up to the lunch break. Mark was right "on target" following lunch, and good-naturedly kept us laughing well into the afternoon. (Note: red clay really does stick to everything.) The home-made fudge I brought disappeared quickly as did crackers and yogurt snacks.

We got the roof sheathing finished and the tar paper on top of it all installed. All of the windows are in, and it surely looks like a real house now. The siding had begun to be installed by the end of the day and should be finished tomorrow. We think the doors may go in tomorrow.

The most fun thing of the week happened about 3:30 when we all went over to the next street to take part in and observe the dedication of 4 homes there. Seeing and meeting the new owners and local Habitat officials and taking part in the ceremony was extremely moving and brought everything into perspective for us all.

These are the first 4 of 32 homes scheduled to be built in the area. Local media was there, and we'll be on the evening news.

Tonight we went to the headquarters of the Mobile Association of REALTORS for a delicious dinner and some fellowship with their officers. It was quite pleasant, and, thanks to Deb, we all wore several strands of Mardi Gras beads. We were very festive, if tired.

Happy and relaxed and full of terrific food, we returned to our motel about 8 and are now winding down for our final burst of energetic building in the morning.

Some of us will return to Maine tomorrow while others will depart on Saturday. It has been a truly inspirational week. We must do this again. The next time, you come too.

Note: Mary Kuykendall is president of the Bangor Board of REALTORS

Day 4 - Reflections on the Build

Steve reports -

The work: Demanding

The bonding: Terrific

The spiritual feeling of giving: PRICELESS!

Note: Steve Joy is a REALTOR in Ellsworth

Attending Another Home's Dedication

Day 3 - Needle rain and throwed rolls

Mary reports: We all suited up this morning dutifully, and were at the work site at 8 am. It was, as predicted, pouring down rain. I will spare the more squeamish of you the metaphor our foreman used to describe what the gorgeous paprika-red Alabama clay turns into when it's wet, but anyway, he gave us some suggestions for activities we might enjoy in the area since we couldn't work.

My group, consisting of Deb Marathon, Gail Rizzo, Sherry Gregory, Patti Lawton and myself chose to drive out to a spit of land which juts out into the gulf and saw some lovely multi-colored beach houses looking like wedding mints. We also saw some oil rigs, Fort Morgan, and photographed each other trying to stand upright in the gale force winds and rain which felt like needles when it hit our skin.

Having had enough of the wind and rain, we retired to Lambert's Cafe, a real experience. It's the home (for those out of the loop of high gustatorial experiences) of the "throwed rolls". It's a lively, friendly place with outstanding food and a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an hour or two and gain another 6 or 8 pounds. The only accident of the day came when a misfired roll aimed at Gail, hit the lady in the booth behind us. They are not only delicious and a little hard to catch, but quite hot when you do.

Lambert's is full of flags from every state. You can imagine our delight when right inside the door we were greeted by the Maine state flag. Of course, we posed for a group photo under it.
After touring a quaint area of downtown known for its Italianate and Victorian architecture we began our search for a place to purchase Mardi Gras trinkets. Came away with beads, tiaras and various feathered things.

We're back in the motel now; settling in and resting up for tomorrow when we will have to play catch up for the day's work missed today.

OK, here's a challenge for you all. How many songs can you think of which have the word "Alabama" or "Mobile" in their title or lyrics? I'll be expecting some answers soon.