Women volunteers find construction cause to be rewarding

By William K. Alcorn | May 31, 2011 at 12:01a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Thousands of women are picking up saws and ladders and learning to hammer nails as they help build homes for low-income residents through Habitat for Humanity.

For two weekends this month, in which Lowe’s National Women Build Week occurs, area women volunteers picked up tools they may have been completely unfamiliar with to join female crews and help Habitat for Humanity Mahoning County build the Leavell family a new home in Youngstown.

“When I first started volunteering with Habitat, I didn’t know enough about using a hammer to pull a nail out of a board,” said Jeanette Hess, 56, of Poland. “Habitat construction managers taught me. That’s why I love it. I’m not very physically active, but they kind of went with what I could do. It’s pretty amazing.”

Hess, who has volunteered on several Habitat homes, worked May 14 on a home the nonprofit organization is building for the Leavells at 1316 Dryden Ave. on the city’s East Side.

Among those who joined Hess as members of female crews here were Michelle Teece, 22, of Boardman; Barb Sylvester, 70, of McDonald; and Brittney Bucco, 23, of Cortland.

Teese, 22, social-media coordinator for Sweeney Chevrolet, Buick, GMC in Boardman, previously participated in a Habitat project in Biloxi, Miss., through her college, Kent State University, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The first weekend she participated in Women Build 2011, she put up siding on the local new home, and the second weekend she installed insulation and patched and primed walls in a Habitat house being rehabbed for sale after it had been repossessed.

Teese said she likes the Habitat mission and what it stands for. “It’s hands-on, and you get to meet the people you are helping. Also, I’m new to the area, and it’s a good way to meet people and to give back to your community,” she said.

Teese, originally from Wayne County in the Orrville area, said construction managers explain everything, and they don’t ask anyone to do something they are not comfortable with. She encouraged women to get involved. Everybody is needed, and there is a task for almost anybody, she said.

Sylvester, a longtime Habitat volunteer in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, said this year’s Women Build project might be her last house.

A retired nurse who last worked at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, she has worked on four new Habitat house constructions and numerous rehabs. She said she enjoys putting up siding, but it is getting harder at her age to recover physically.

Learning to use tools was not a stretch for Sylvester, whose father was a carpenter. She also used to build and sell dollhouses.

“I really enjoy volunteering. There is nothing better than giving back to the community. I wish more people would try it. I think they would enjoy it,” said Hess, who was also part of a Habitat project in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

Bucco, also a Habitat veteran, said she was not handy with tools on her first project.

“It was pretty much learn on the job. But the construction managers are good teachers, and they are understanding. They know that a person might not want to go up on a roof. Putting on siding is my favorite job,” said Bucco, a pharmacy student at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy in Erie, Pa. She participated in three Habitat projects during spring break while she was a student at Mercyhurst College in Erie.

Bucco said she volunteers for Habitat because it is “right thing to do. There are people who are less fortunate. My favorite thing is talking to new Habitat house owners and hearing their life stories. Sometimes they are incredible.”

She said she would like to continue with Habitat after she graduates from pharmacy school.

“It’s fun, and it is nice to learn something and help someone out at the same time. It makes me a more-rounded person, and it’s a good way to get acquainted and to do something with people who have the same mind-set,” she said.

“The substandard housing I see is sad,” said Hess, a homemaker and retired claims representative with the Social Security Administration. “Everybody needs a decent place to live, and Habitat is way for low-income people to get a home. If they are willing to work and learn, they can get a new home.”

Hess also volunteers with Operation Learning Community, a tutoring program for at-risk inner-city second- and third-graders.

She urged women to consider becoming Habitat volunteers.

“Just go and try it out. It’s a very fun-loving group. The people training you are very patient. I have spent some days using a broom and sweeping up, but my favorite job is installing insulation, so I try to do that on every house I work on,” she added.