What's New with Regular Crews?

Pictured above: Third Act Regular Crew.

Guest blog by Emma Figura, Volunteer Program Manager and Regular Crew Coordinator

If you visit any Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity location during the year, from ReStores to build sites, chances are you’ll encounter members of our Regular Crews ("Regs" for short). Most of our Regular Volunteer base is comprised of retiree-aged individuals dedicating their time to recurrent volunteerism, giving back to the Twin Cities community they’ve lived in for decades. Here's the fun fact about Reg Crews:

Regular Volunteers make up less than 5% of our annual volunteer base but contribute nearly 50% of collective volunteer hours to Twin Cities Habitat each year! 

The Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity affiliate has been shaped by Regs from the start, beginning in 1985 as a group of passionate volunteers meeting in church basements and pooling resources to buy and renovate the first Habitat home. Once the first house was completed, volunteers began working on the next. And the next and the next. That process and dedication continues to this day. Some of our current Regular Volunteers first interacted with Twin Cities Habitat back in the 1980s and 1990s, sticking with us well into their later years.

Left: HealthPartners Reg Crew members; right: Women Build Reg Crew volunteers

Twin Cities Habitat has 19 active Regular Crews building on sites across the metro area, dozens of individual Regular Volunteers, and a ReStore Regular Crew focused on supporting each ReStore location the metro. In 2025, 478 Regs volunteered across all three areas. Those folks contributed an astounding 55,780 of the 128,108 hours recorded for all 2025 volunteers!

At our Annual Regular Crew Summit this past March, Twin Cities Habitat staff members celebrated the extraordinary accomplishments of our Regs by looking back on the past year of work and forward to upcoming projects. We shared photos from the nearly two dozen sites that Regs worked on in the past year and discussed plans for new builds in Minnetonka and Prior Lake, as well as continuing work on the Heights in St. Paul.

Presenters shared information about our local and public  partnerships in Twin Cities suburbs, updates about the Build Forward Together Campaign, and progress made in building our post purchase program to support Habitat homeowners beyond closing. Regular Volunteers had a chance to ask questions to a panel of staff leadership before enjoying lunch alongside fellow volunteers and Habitat staff.

Above: Bud's Bunch Regular Crew volunteers

As Regular Crew Coordinator at Twin Cities Habitat, I count myself immeasurably lucky to interact with this crowd of wonderful people. Every time I visit a site or ReStore, I am reminded not only of their admirable passion for Habitat's mission to provide affordable homeownership in the Twin Cities but also of their great enthusiasm for the lives they’ve lived and the stage in which they currently thrive. I never leave such a visit without feeling rejuvenated by the energy our Regulars possess, even after a long day of lifting walls, moving furniture, or painting an entire house.

Our Regs are retired doctors, engineers, woodworkers, teachers, artists, and so much more. They bring their life experiences to the build sites, constructing community not just with hammers but with conversations. Though many have their established group of peers, they are never shy to welcome new volunteers, greeting folks with grace and an invitation to learn more about this nonprofit that has long captured their own interest and time.

To all of our incredible volunteers, especially to Regular Crews—3Mgives, ABWK, Basilica of St. Mary, BlueCrew, Bud’s Bunch, Cargill Cares Alumni, Dakota, HealthPartners Retirees, Individual Regulars, JCRC, North Central, Pax Christi, Quicksilvers, ReStore Regulars, South Metro, St. Andrew's, St. Paul’s, Terra’s Grunts, Third Act, Women Build, and Xcel Retirees Regular Crews—thank you for your continued service to our community. We truly couldn’t do this work without your support!