Summary: Habitat For Humanity

The name of the non profit religious organization I volunteered for is called Habitat for Humanity. Their mission is to help people in need of a home. They believe that every person deserves to have an affordable place to call home. They have many locations all over the world. The office I went to was located in Harwich. A common misconception is that they build houses for free. In fact, the homeowners pay for their own house, they just pay much less by going through the organization. The reason why they pay less is because most people building the house do it for free. The homeowners are required to spend 200 hours building their home. The organization also gets many donations. For example, one house I worked on had solar panels that were …show more content…
It was for people who wanted to do something with their life and for people who wanted to help others. Most volunteers were either middle aged or an elder. Other people volunteering were students trying to complete their service learning. With Habitat for Humanity being a rather large community, I dealt with a lot of different people. This lead to a bit of social diversity. With the organization being Christian, they had a priest come in and say a blessing during our break. You could tell most people were Christians, but not everyone. You could tell that the people who were not Christians were not into praying. One thing I noticed was that everyone was white, but not everyone was originally from Massachusetts. In the group of people I volunteered with at the first house there were people originally from Ireland, Alabama, England, Connecticut, ect. This created an interesting dynamic. There were many different accents and slang from other areas being used. I noticed that people were very diverse in the way they teach and communicate. While being taught how to do things, I found myself having to adapt to different styles of teaching depending on who I was working with. I also noticed myself talking differently to different people. For example, I could tell some people responded well to sarcasm and jokes and that this was a good way to bond. These were typically the younger …show more content…
Most people were older and retired and wanted something that they could do throughout the week. I think the most common thing people wanted out of volunteering was to have a community that they could to be a part of. Just from observing the people around me, I could tell that friendships had been made. That people really enjoyed being there and doing something useful. A lot of people seemed to enjoy working with new volunteers and teaching them the ropes. The regulars said that the feeling they got when the house was finished was magical. Being able to be apart of a community like this, even if it was only for two days, was eye opening. I gained a deeper understanding for why people volunteer and the kind of community it can build. I realized that the reason people kept volunteering was to not just help someone in need, but to get that special feeling of accomplishment for themselves. I found myself enjoying my time there during breaks because I had fun being around this kid group of people who were enthusiastic about working on the home. I learned that I liked helping people. I also learned that I am not exactly a big fan of insulating houses, but that I liked the special feeling I got when I knew I helped someone in need. It gave me a new perspective on doing volunteer