2018 was an incredible year, with many thanks to our 11,000+ volunteers. Whether you volunteered at a chilly panel build in March, mentored a family through our program, greeted State Fair visitors for our Ag Build, or enjoyed that memorable pizza lunch during your build day, you helped provide 27 families the life-changing opportunity of homeownership. Thank you for building strength, stability, and independence for local families!

The numbers speak for themselves, so check it out below!

We hope to see many of you on the build site in 2019! To sign up for monthly emails about open volunteer opportunities, please create or update your account here. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

Every volunteer is vital to our work building homes, communities, and hope alongside families in Greater Indy. Whether volunteers spend one day or ten with Habitat, they help provide a quality, affordable place to call home and build stability for local homeowners. We are also blessed with some volunteers who share their skills and passions more frequently and we’re excited to introduce you to Carmen, one of those stellar volunteers.

Since her first volunteer experience in April at the Ivy Tech panel build, Carmen has volunteered 20 times on 5+ Habitat homes! And she’s signed up for more days this fall. Read below to learn more about Carmen.

Q&A with Carmen:

You’ve come out 20 times so far this year volunteering on our build sites! Thank you so much! What is it about Habitat that keeps you coming back for more?
I am fascinated with the ability to build and create with my hands. Also, I hoped to help people. Here at Habitat, I can achieve both worlds.

Sometimes our volunteers tell us that every time they come to the build site, they learn something new – whether it be a Habitat fact or even a new skill. What’s something new you have learned recently while volunteering?
The skills of carpentry and construction work are all new to me. Surely, I will develop more of these skills in time. Volunteering can be a daily reminder of the skills I do have such as adaptability, persistency, and strength.

If you had to use one word to describe your volunteer experience with us, what word would you use?
Rewarding. I’m helping to build a home. Then, that home will become part of a thriving community.

What advice would you give to first-time Habitat volunteers?
My advice for first time volunteers would be to:
1) Be brave!
2) Imperfection is normal.
3) Get out of your comfort zone.
4) Enjoy the experience!

Thank you, Carmen, for all that you do to build strength, stability and independence through homeownership!

Since our last volunteer quarterly update, we’ve doubled the number of volunteers who have helped on build sites this year. That’s a lot of hands and hearts giving back to their neighbors! Thank you to each of our volunteers who make our mission possible, in the heat of the summer or those chilly fall mornings. Check out more of our Quarter Three volunteer impact stats below!

To join us in this important work of building strength, stability, and independence through homeownership, check out our volunteer page for ways to get involved. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

Like father, like son, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity runs in the Seppel family. This spring our staff member Lindsey happened upon one of our favorite volunteer sightings: family members giving back to other Greater Indy families by volunteering together. Paul and Isaac Seppel were spending the day on our Lilly builds for the Henriquez and Freeman families. Lindsey caught up with both of them to hear why they volunteer with Greater Indy Habitat!

“It’s been such a blessing to be able to serve in the community with Habitat. Having the chance to work alongside my father is a double blessing…an added perk. It’s also such a great thing to have a long-standing relationship between Lilly and Habitat, working for a company that sees the value in sending out their employees to serve.” – Isaac Seppel, Lilly Volunteer

“Habitat is a great mission, and it’s great to be a part of adding back to the community.” – Paul Seppel, Tiger Team member

Thank you, Isaac and Paul, for sharing your expertise and energy to build strength, stability, and independence for local families!

To sign up for a build day this fall (and invite your family members to participate!), please visit our volunteer site.

Our volunteers ultimately allow us to build quality homes for local families in need of affordable homeownership. At halfway through the year, our outstanding volunteers have helped complete 8 homes for first-time homeowners! And we hope the new 2,172 volunteers who created a new account will help us build another 19 homes yet in 2018. Check out the Quarter Two volunteer stats below to see what an incredible impact each volunteer helps make on our community.

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To join us in this important work of building strength, stability, and independence through homeownership, check out our volunteer page for ways to get involved. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

Written by: Meredith Canfield & Ted Mosey, GIHFH staff

Over the years, Habitat has enjoyed a great relationship with Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. Several Habitat homeowners originally found out about our program while working at Goodwill, participating in Nurse-Family Partnership (including Mansa!), or at the Excel Center. One of our longtime board members is Zaida Monell, who spends her days as a Goodwill executive. Our relationship is tied together by our combined passion to offer a life-changing hand-up that empowers people to reach their potential.

Recently, we built on our relationship by getting out of the office and doing a volunteer-swap of sorts! Together with Goodwill employees, Habitat employees spent the day at a Goodwill Outlet reaching into bins or containers to sort through items like donated clothes, books or shoes looking for gently used pieces that would be sold at a nearby Goodwill store, Vintage Vogue or Outlet store. We learned that the revenue generated by the sale of these items help create opportunities to improve the health, education or employment of individuals, just like the very employees standing next to us in the back of the warehouse. Many of us have shopped at Goodwill stores ourselves but didn’t really know the impact behind our purchases! It was fun working right alongside the employees of Goodwill, learning from them and hearing how Goodwill has impacted their lives. You know the saying, “someone’s trash can be someone else’s treasure”? Well, our team truly learned how the purchase of someone’s once unwanted belongings are bringing a life of new treasures to someone else’s!

The following week, Goodwill employees spent a day with paint brushes in their hands on a Habitat build on the Southside of Indy. Kent Kramer, Goodwill CEO, as well as Zaida Monell and other teammates worked alongside Sharna to help her achieve her dream of homeownership.

Collaboration is key and we are thankful for partners like Goodwill that are working alongside of our team to make Indy a stronger and more equitable place to live and work!

Though we are only one quarter of the way into our year, Greater Indy Habitat volunteers are making a serious impact on our mission. Indiana weather hasn’t been kind, but our dedicated volunteers have pushed through cold, snow and wind to build and rehab homes for local families. Catch a glimpse of what our volunteers have already accomplished in 2018 below!

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To join us in this important work of building strength, stability, and independence through homeownership, check out our volunteer page for ways to get involved. With questions, contact volunteer@indyhabitat.org.

We rely on thousands of volunteers to complete our mission each year who donate their time in varying amounts and ways. Often our unsung heroes each year are our AmeriCorps volunteers. Both Hope and Carol are offering a year of their talent and time to further Habitat’s mission in Greater Indy. Get to know a bit more about them below and please join us in thanking them for their service!

Meet Carol:

• Where have you called “home”?
  South end of Eagle Creek Reservoir, Southern Illinois, Northeast Indiana, Northwest Ohio
• Why did you choose to work with Greater Indy Habitat?
  I am attracted to the commitment of serving and helping others reach their dreams.
• What’s one skill you look forward to learning/improving in the next year?
  Beginning-to-end home building.
• When not working on a Habitat build site, where might someone find you enjoying your free time?
  Hiking, biking, history research for Pope CO., Illinois.

Meet Hope:

• Where do you or have you called home?
  I live in Indianapolis and grew up in New Palestine.
• Why did you choose to work with Greater Indy Habitat?
  I volunteered with Habitat in high school and college and knew that it was something I wanted to do some day.
• What’s one skill you look forward to learning/improving in the next year?
  I want to become more confident in leading a group of people. I can’t wait to learn more throughout this year.
• When not working on a Habitat build site, where might someone find you enjoying your free time?
  Being with my friends and family or watching a movie.

Thank you for building homes, communities and hope across Indiana!