By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

You don’t have to be a professional carpenter to build a home, members of the Brooksby community have learned. A group of Brooksby’s residents and staff recently tried their hands at construction work for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing homes for low-income families.

“You can have ten thumbs and still work—[you can] rip up stuff, work on the lawn, work on any part of it,” says Quintilio Bersani, who lives at Brooksby and participated in the Habitat project in Salem, Mass., late last year.

“You don’t have to be an expert; most of the people are not,” he adds. Seven Brooksby community members, including Bersani and Ruth Converse, made the latest trip.

Team effort
With additional help from a Habitat worker and one of the future home owners, the group worked on a building that was at one time a laundromat and at another, a small factory. Next, it will become a two-family house.

Through a careful selection process, Habitat finds families in need of homes. Then Habitat organizers, the future homeowner, and volunteers either build or rehabilitate a simple house to sell to the family at an affordable price. The average home price through Habitat in the U.S. is about $60,000.

“One of the most enjoyable things about working with Habitat on projects like this is you meet the families,” says Brooksby Volunteer Program Coordinator Tom Cook, who organizes the outreach effort and lends a hand himself. “[They are] usually there when volunteers are there. It’s really nice knowing you’re sweating for these wonderful people and that they’re sweating too.”