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Longtime Volunteers Raise Funds to Build Home

Home dedicated to retirees who made it possible

From left, David Hunt and Leo Castanon.  Not pictured is Lou Wilson.

Shielding his eyes from the August sun and looking around at a group of volunteers preparing to secure a wall panel to the concrete foundation below, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio volunteer Leo Castanon reflected proudly on his involvement with HFHSA.

“Two of my friends and I have been with Habitat for 16 years or so, working on houses,” he said later.  “Two years ago we decided we wanted to do a house.”

And, to Castanon and friends “to do a house” means more than just providing the labor to construct it.  They also set out to raise the funds needed to build the house with HFHSA and a family in need.

For almost two decades, HFHSA has benefited from the hard work of a group of retirees affectionately known as the “Wednesday-Thursday Crew.”  Castanon and friends, fellow retirees

 David Hunt and Lou Wilson are part of this effort.  When HFHSA kicked off its “fall” building season on August 21 in its community near Palo Alto College, the dedication of this crew was even more apparent – they were not only volunteering on the construction crew, they were also providing the funds needed to construct one home.

“It gives you great satisfaction, knowing you are doing something for someone else,” Castanon explained.

The trio – each from different local congregations including Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, St. Thomas Episcopal Church and First United Methodist Church of Boerne – spent approximately two years doing volunteer construction work for anyone who needed it, in addition to their weekly volunteering for HFHSA. They did everything from tile work to fencing, Castanon said.

“We have no background in construction, other than what we learned how to do through Habitat,” he explained.

In turn, those they volunteered for were given the option to make a donation to the Good Sam Habitat Fund, set up through Wilson’s church, Abiding Presence Lutheran Church.  Over the course of the two years, the Good Sam Habitat Fund grew to close to $30,000, or approximately half of what it costs to build a Habitat home in San Antonio.

“We are not youngsters,” laughed Castanon. “At our age, if we had to go another two years [to raise the rest of the needed funds], we’d be too old to hold up a hammer.”

Thanks to an anonymous donor, the crew doesn’t have to worry about getting too old to build that house.  An anonymous donor came forward and contributed the rest of the funds needed to officially sponsor a Habitat home.  The resulting home will be dedicated to the Wednesday-Thursday volunteer crews in recognition of their service to HFHSA.  Construction began Friday, August 21, and will continue through the end of October.

The house will be the home of a local single mother of two, who will work alongside the volunteers until her home is built.  It is one of nine homes that are currently under construction.  Crews will begin eight more in early September.  All 17 will be dedicated in a ceremony on November 7, marking the conclusion of HFHSAs construction for 2009 and bringing the total number of homes built this year to 50.

Construction on the homes will continue in the current Habitat community through the November dedication.

“We are so proud to have volunteers as dedicated as the Wednesday-Thursday crew,” said Dennis L. Bechhold, HFHSA President and CEO.  “It’s the compassion and commitment of people such as these that continue to make our programs possible.  They have given selflessly of themselves and their time.”

Visit www.habitatsa.org to learn more about the Habitat program.