Obama Works with Habitat for Humanity in Minneapolis in September 2008

Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to the simple idea that shelter from rain, wind and sun is a basic human need. Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) works to provide decent shelter and eliminate "poverty housing." Relying on donations and volunteer help, deserving families can have genuinely adequate places to call home; places which in turn foster self-respect and the hope of a better life. HFHI has built more than 250,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1 million people in thousands of communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.

Obama Works is a national grassroots organization comprised of volunteers dedicated to implementing Senator Barack Obama’s message of positive change through public service. These are volunteer organizers harnessing the energy of people inspired by Obama's example as a community organizer and highlighted by his campaign for the U.S. Presidency to serve by undertaking activities such as food drives, clean-up up after parades, and other community service. Obama works is not affiliated with the Obama campaign, yet there's an obvious harmony between Obama's message of hope and the goals of HFHI.

Energized by their success cleaning up the Dodge Nature Center, on September 13th, 2008, the Obama Works Twin Cities group partnered with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to apply some elbow grease to two projects in Minneapolis. What follows hints at what transpired leading up to and during the work at the south Minneapolis location (I couldn't be two places at one time.)

Making a house into a home.

While home is ultimately about people, we often think in terms of walls, a roof, and plumbing when describing the house. Saturday a group of about a dozen intrepid volunteers set aside campaign efforts and worked, instead, under the guidance of two volunteer Master Gardeners (connected with the Hennepin County Extension Service) to perk up the landscaping for a family that had moved into their property during the summer. According to Meleah Maynard, a Minneapolis freelance writer and master gardener who has volunteered with Habitat for the past three years, the Habitat/master gardener partnership began in the mid-1990s when master gardener Jack Duchow was landscaping Habitat properties and realized they were sorely in need of a plan.

Habitat for Humanity Twin Cities was glad to have the help even though the Obama Works volunteers had come together originally based on shared political goals. We dug up new areas for planting, re-worked some gardens that needed help, and added plants that the family had selected (in consultation with the Master Gardeners) which were donated by Bailey Nursery.

The Master Gardeners had worked with the local Habitat organization to insure sufficient tools, compost, and mulch would be available on site.

They had laid out a plan with the homeowner in advance; on Saturday they coached, taught, and helped lay out, dig, plant, and liberally mulch the beds.

It was a cool, cloudy day, raining on and off, but the material, tools, and plants were there so we worked through the drizzle digging new garden areas, a spot for a new tree in the front yard, and then moving wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of compost and mulch from the alley to be spread around the new plantings.

While I was busy editing video, cropping pictures, uploading, and trying to figure out what to say here, other Obama Works Twin Cities volunteers spent Sunday doing Mexican Independence Day parade clean-up, (and probably some voter registration as time allowed.) If you'd like to learn more about the Twin Cities group you can follow the links to their pages on the BarackObama.com website, or at Facebook. (The national Obama Works group also has a Facebook page.)

If you'd like to attend the next Twin Cities planning and community organizing meeting, it's on October 8th. No experience necessary -- but you'll have a great experience at either the meetings or the events.

There were a few pictures I took that didn't get published here. To see the album in its entirety do that click thing. Remember: Together We Can!

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." ~Mohammed Ali

Digg this story!

Do you volunteer? One person can make a difference.

"Learn to lead in a nourishing manner.
Learn to lead without being possessive.
Learn to be helpful without taking the credit.
Learn to lead without coercion."

Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu sounds more like a modern mayor or community organizer than an ancient philosopher. As you've heard, "Those who can, do." However, those who can do more, volunteer. They know the reward of giving with no expectation of "taking the credit" (or even a tax deduction) for their effort. Nationally, about one in three people who volunteer in a given year do not do so the following year. In Miami, the metro area with the lowest ranking of the cities cited in the study, the drop-out rate is six in 10.

"There's interest in volunteering in a lot of people but they're just not staying with it," according to Robert Grimm, director of research for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

Rapid turnover is a problem across the country, but the report concluded that "volunteer intensity" is increasing, with one-third of volunteers contributing more than 100 hours of service in a year - the highest rate for that category since 2002. However the overall national participation rate dropped again in 2007 after reaching 28.8% in 2005.

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Antoine de Saint Exupery

The CNCS, an independent federal agency, used Census Bureau data to determine its state and city rankings, which are based on three-year averages for 2005 through 2007. In all, the study found that 60.8 million Americans (aged 16 and older) performed roughly 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service in 2007.

"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By region, the Midwest had the highest volunteer rate at 31.1% in the recent CNCS study, followed by the West at 26.1, the South with 24.7 and the Northeast at 23.4 -- the number one metro area of the top 50 ranked? That honor goes to the twin cities, Minneapolis/Saint Paul with an impressive 39.3% participation rate, possibly due in part to the efforts of their Corporate Volunteerism Council, the CVC. It's difficult to tease apart cause and effect: but maybe there really is something to that so-called "Minnesota nice" since even the sometimes contentious 2008 presidential campaign has spawned volunteerism in Minnesota.

Then, too, it was Mayor Raymond Thomas "R.T." Rybak of Minneapolis who declared July 9, 2007 as “Volunteer Day” in his city, to celebrate the important role that volunteers play in the life of any community. Since being elected he's been tirelessly leading by example, enlisting his community in reweaving what he calls the urban fabric while laying the groundwork for the future of his city.

So obviously there are many things coming together in Minnesota, (maybe R.T. has studied Lao Tzu) but the lessons can be applied anywhere in the world.
Act to help others, no matter if you're 7 or 77:

Learn to be helpful without taking the credit.