2006 Habitat Index

2006 Habitat Retrospective

131 Congress Street, Buffalo, NY, St. Peter's project home for 2006

Immediately after the morning worship service on Sunday, June 25, 2006, 15 parishioners from St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley departed for Buffalo, NY for what would be our Sixth Annual Habitat Mission Trip, a week-long endeavor to serve God by serving others. And, thanks be to God, after a week of much work, much fun, and much accomplishment, our crew of volunteers all returned safely back to Paoli having made a difference in the lives of others and in ourselves.

For the second year in a row, St. Peter's worked under the direction of the Buffalo chapter of Habitat for Humanity. We put our best efforts on the complex task of rehabilitating an old house on the west side of Buffalo that will become the home of a Somalian family. The structure had already been gutted before we arrived, and there was certainly much work for our team to address, upstairs and down, inside and out. This rehab is a large, 3-story, 6 bedroom site, and our volunteers took on projects which included plumbing, heating, carpentry, drywall installation, and vinyl siding installation.

Thank you for keeping our team leader, Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud, and each of our other missionaries, in your prayers during our trip. You are invited to read the retrospectives included below, and then click on each of the days shown immediately below for many pictures and additional retrospectives.

Sunday, June 25 - Travel day to Buffalo, NY

Monday, June 26 - First day at 131 Congress Street, Buffalo

Tuesday, June 27 - The Day that the Rains Came

Wednesday, June 28 - A Somalian Feast

Thursday, June 29 - Last Day on the Job

Friday, June 30 - A day of rest at Niagara Falls

As my third Habitat for Humanity week draws to an end, I am filled with wonder at the blessings that have been sprinkled throughout my life. Each Habitat experience is unique, and I'll remember the following highlights of our 2006 trip:

Sharing the week with my family My two nieces, Adriana Guastella and Alexandra Ferrara, and their fathers, Frank and Vic, joined us this year. As the date of our departure to Buffalo approached, the family often kidded that this trip might be the next episode of The Simple Life with Adriana and Alexandra substituting for Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. My nieces immediately demonstrated the silliness of our remarks as they aggressively attacked their first assignments on Monday morning. Throughout the remainder of the week, it was comforting to watch both of them working side by side with their fathers.

Spending the week with St. Peter's teenagers One of the gifts of the Habitat experience is spending time with the incredible youth who give of themselves during their summer break. As the designated driver of the "teen" van, I have the privilege to get to know some of the sons and daughters of St. Peter's, and each Habitat trip reinforces my confidence in the future as I witness our emerging leaders in development. Grant Dovey has been my "shotgun" for each of the past three years although I almost lost him this year as he flew up to Buffalo on Monday rather than departing with the group on Sunday. Carrie Vaisman is one of the original "Deck Masters" who has worked with me on all of my Habitat trips (Carrie, thanks for the cell phone banner-I'll think of you every time I notice it). Devon and Jay Geyer returned again for their second Habitat trip. This year, Jay inspired me as he conquered his fear of heights while Devon continues to demonstrate leadership skills that will serve her well into adulthood. Bryan Joyce also returned for his second Habitat trip and set the "group record" for hammering together two 2 x 4's in only eight strokes. In addition to my two nieces, we had two new "teens" join us this year-Brooke Exley, who will probably be our country's Ambassador-at-Large some day, and Sarah Webb (Nancy's niece), who seemed to be my favorite "go-to" person when I needed something on the work site.

Sharing a meal with the owner-family On Wednesday, the new owners-to-be provided a fabulous hot meal at the work site, and we had the opportunity to chat a bit. This experience put a human face on the labels "refugee", "Islamic" and "Somalia". Their expressions of heartfelt appreciation provided additional motivation during the hot hours of the afternoon.

Witnessing God's work The ride to Buffalo is quite scenic. Thankfully, Carol Baily paid as much attention to the directions as I did to the rolling mountains of upstate New York, especially since we were in the lead van. After we had completed our work, the group drove up to Niagara Falls where God's work is truly manifest in the majesty of the falls. This year I had the opportunity to view the falls from Canada, which I recommend to anyone traveling into the area.

Working with a great project manager Our project manager, Chuck, was simply great! His generosity as a human being inspired us. He shared himself in an authentic and compelling way that made all of us work a little harder, and he acknowledged our contributions regularly, reinforcing our desire to do good work.

Relaxing with friends Our work schedule offers ample opportunities to share recreational activities with others. Roger Thorne and Vic and I explored the cemetery across the street from the dorm during one of our morning runs. . .seems people are dying to get in there. J Later in the week, we ran around one of the ponds in Delaware Park-a beautiful way to start the day. After our morning runs, we'd head down to Nancy's room as she had the coffee. In fact, much of our social life occurred during meals in her suite. The other key chance to socialize occurred in the hour between our return from the work site and dinner. While Roger and Tom Brehm had their own early evening ritual, the rest of us would clean up and relax with a cold beverage, sore muscles and the satisfaction of another day of good honest labor.

Each of my Habitat experiences has offered me the opportunity to reflect upon the blessings of my life and my role as a Christian in today's world. No special skills are required other than the desire to do good work. I encourage all to consider the possibility of joining us next year (and if an entire week seems to be too difficult to schedule, consider joining Good Works, another outreach program that meets on the second Saturday of each month with the goal of making a home in Coatesville "safer, warmer and drier").

Ken Fleischer

On July 6, 2006, St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley received a Thank You Letter from Bob Henderson, coordinator for the Buffalo affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.

Another summer, another week of Habitat, and another reality check. For the past four years, this has been one of my favorite weeks of summer because I get to help people who are not talking on their fancy cell phones, who are not wearing their fancy designer clothes, and who are not living in humongous houses made for a family of giants.

I once again participated in the annual St. Peter’s Habitat for Humanity trip even though I did not leave with the group. The Sunday after they left my parents arrived home from church and told me about the fifteen dedicated people that were going. I went into a Habitat withdrawal mode and immediately had my Dad on the internet looking up train and plane prices.

So what did I do? Monday morning I hopped on a plane and flew to Buffalo to be number sixteen. As soon as I arrived I was eagerly welcomed by Brian and Jay who happened to be outnumbered by girls, five to two. (But is that always a bad thing? J)

The rest of the gang was tired from the day’s work, but we managed a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up the necessities which included and were not limited to: squirt-guns, rope, sunless tanner, shaving cream, and Mountain Dew. That night we enjoyed another year of waking up Jay Geyer every hour to make him a little angry.

The next morning came early and we were off to Congress Avenue passing by the famous Richmond Avenue as we did every morning. (The kids and Ken will get that joke. J) Of course with our luck we got there and the rain was coming down in buckets and it did not let up the whole day. That did not stop this group though. We worked through the rain and that even included Tom Brehm, Jay Geyer, Brooke Exley and I standing on ladders in the rain ripping down and putting up siding.

The inside crew did a great job as well. Vic and Alexandra put in a window frame while Frank and Adriana worked on the bathroom. That day I also mistakenly tried to staple a staple into the Tyvec sidewrap to make it stick to the house and accidentally put it through the window. (More to come!) All in all, despite the horrendous weather I think the group did a great job getting done what we needed to get done.

Tuesday night we spent the night just relaxing watching movies and junking out on food that is not too high on the Food Pyramid.

Wednesday came around and I spent the day with good friend Tom Brehm putting up the siding on the side of the house. It was quite a job and we made a lot of headway. I also learned how to install windows because I had to put in a new window for the one I broke the day before. After the daily Eucharist the family, who were all of Somalian descent, provided us with their food. It was absolutely great to see the family and see there little boy who is a quadriplegic and was going to have surgery the next day.

That night was spent at the Anchor Bar who had the ever-so-famous Suicidal Wings. (Ken Fleischer is still regretting his decision of trying them one year ago.) Adriana and Jay gave them a try though; well actually Jay gave everything a try. We kept feeding the poor kid, but he made it home so I would have to call it a success. We also got to celebrate Tom Brehm’s “birthday.” (It really was not his birthday, I just felt like telling them it was.) Bryan Joyce then turned around and did the same thing to me and told them it was my birthday. It was a very fun and entertaining dinner to be a part of.

We got home after dinner and set out to make some plans. We remembered about the rope that I had purchased at Wal-Mart and we tied the adult’s doors together with it so they would be unable to get out in the morning. THE PLAN WORKED!! However, it was pretty short-lived. 5:45 AM or 0545 as we like to call it came around and all of the kids were standing outside the adult men’s door. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the door came open, but not too far. Ken was able to open the door about one inch and we began laughing as he was trying to untie all the knots and was not very successful. After about fifteen minutes we see Roger Thorne’s head pop in the door. Roger, who is always prepared, happened to be carrying a knife and cut it to allow them out. It was really funny while it lasted though.

It was another nice morning on Thursday and it was the last work day. Most of us finished up our projects we had been working on throughout the week. Tom Brehm and I finished up our siding for the week and Habitat for Humanity provided us with some great pizza for lunch. We had a great closing ceremony with “Buffalo Bob.”

Thursday night we had a cookout and played a little football with some members of the Habitat staff at Canisius College. Ron Talboys showed us the video that aired on the local news about that house that we helped build last year and it was just a really fun time.

The last we headed up to Niagara Falls for the day instead of having a work day and it was a lot of fun. Everyone split up and we all did our own thing and met back at the information center at 3 PM and some of us stayed, while others went back to the college.

At about 7:45 that night Ken and all the kids went to see the movie “Click” starring Adam Sandler. By the end of the movie we were all in tears with the exception of Jay Geyer. (He has no emotion.)

The kids pretty much stayed up the remainder of the night and hung out and packed up because we were leaving early on Saturday morning.

I really enjoyed this trip. Volunteering is something I love to do for people that are less fortunate than I am and I really regret not going and then deciding to go. I really should have gone in the first place. There is not one bad thing I can say about anyone that was on the this trip and that is really something special.

- Grant Dovey

To us the Habitat for Humanity trip takes on a new meaning each year, but there is one thing about the trip that always remains the same. Each year this trip proves the importance and strength of kindness and love. Both can be seen in the people who go on this trip and the people who work at the site with us, but there are other little acts of kindness and love that we often overlook.

For example, one of the days this week the woman living across the street brought over coffee for all of us working at the site. It is little acts like this which brighten our days and inspire us to continue working hard. We often get so caught up in our lives and the big things going on that we forget about little acts, like holding the door for the next person coming in, but it is these little things that keep us going each day. The family whose house we were working on is from Somalia and practices the religion of Islam. It never fails to amaze us the way that people of such different backgrounds and cultures can overcome all stereotypes and come together in the name of love.

Each year on these trips we learn something new about building. Last year, we learned how to put up drywall and mud in a house. This year, we learned how to frame a wall and windows, how to side a house, and how to install insulation. Both years we got to know many new people. We each learn something new and different on every trip, but one thing we always re-learn is the power of love and sacrifice. It brings people together and helps us all to get through even the hardest things in life. Love and kindness lift us up and carry us through life.

Devon & Jay Geyer