2021 Global Village Gone Local Build Day a Success

Guest Blog by Noah Keller, 
Lead Homebuilding Project Manager

The unofficial Global Village theme of FLEXIBILITY came in handy last week, as the rainy weather during the 8th Annual Global Village Gone Local build challenged our schedule. But it didn’t wash out our productivity, or our spirits!

First of all, we definitely needed the rain, so it simply wouldn’t make sense to complain. Secondly, our group that was rained out Tuesday largely came together on Wednesday as a make-up day...flexibility at its finest. Thursday was hugely productive, and Friday’s rain merely motivated everyone on the roster to sign up in the coming weeks to help Site Supervisor Zack and AmeriCorps member Mira continue with quality progress on the new house going up on Vincent Ave N in Minneapolis.

Chris Coleman and Global Village volunteers cover water-sensitive building materials before one of the many rain showers during the build.

Needless to say, it takes substantial sums of money to fund home construction, and the Global Village volunteers answered that call vociferously, donating over $9,000 to essentially pay for the lumber and other building materials that we assembled on site. This example of putting one’s money where their hammer is inspired the week’s work!

John DeWolf pounds nails at the GV Gone Local build site, fastening subfloor onto first floor trusses.

The pandemic brought a sudden stop to Global Village trips, and it has required patience among all of us who love to travel to other countries to build and rehab Habitat homes. While we continue to wait and hope for increased access to vaccines in communities around the world, we are also focusing our dedication to Habitat’s mission locally.

Aside from doing our part to contribute to the construction of affordable homeownership opportunities in the Twin Cities, it’s also a great way to stay in shape and remind ourselves of some muscles that only make themselves known after lugging around lumber and driving nails for several hours! Just as soon as we can safely travel to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and other locations to build again, we’ll be ready. And we’ll be flexible!

Chris Coleman and other GV Gone Local volunteers work on subfloor installation at 3238 Vincent Ave N.

If you share a passion for traveling, inter-cultural learning, and creating much-needed housing, please let us know by emailing globalvillage@tchabitat.org and we’ll keep you in the loop with local Global Village opportunities. You’ll also be notified when we are once again recruiting volunteer teams for international build trips!