Habitat for Humanity Staff Build Day aka Walking the Talk

I challenge you to join the Ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk ~ Tony Robbins

The above quote was the mission I shared with ten of my colleagues from Habitat for Humanity Wellington County and the Habitat Guelph ReStore on Tuesday, March 6th. All Habitat and ReStore staff came to the conclusion that it's good and all to ask people to donate their time and money to help build more homes for deserving families in our communities, it's another thing to do the job yourself.

For one day, we stepped away from fundraising and volunteer programs, stepped away from advocacy and social media initiatives, stepped away from policies and stepped away from accounting and administration to focus on, "walking our talk" at the My Neighbour's House project.

It was a GREAT day! There are many enjoyable experiences about being on a home-building construction site. You can meet new people with similar interests or reconnect with colleagues. You will learn new trades skills and gain self-confidence that may have been buried below. However, nothing is more enjoyable than knowing your work will equate to a family breaking a from a vicious poverty cycle, potentially moving away from unsafe and dangerous living conditions to go move into a sustainable housing solution, a Habitat for Humanity Home.


It's truly uplifting to think that the doors you are installing in a room could be the very same door that represents a child's first bedroom door. It is satisfying to think that a child's health and grades can improve because of that door you installed.

Selfishly, there were extra incentives to my building experiences. I'm currently renovating my basement and opted to take the project on myself and my Father to finish. Conveniently, as we are at the stage of door installations in the basement project, what do you think I got to learn on the build site at My Neighbour's House? You guessed it.... I learned to install doors! The timing literally couldn't have been better. Now I'll be able to stray from the norm of my Father teaching me everything about renovations and teach him how to propertly install doors; all in thanks to our wonderful Site Supervisor, John. Thanks John!

Another great element of the day was the ability to work alongside staff and the ReStore. I don't cross paths all the time with some staff of the ReStore and it was a pleasure to work alongside them for an entire day. I think I learned a lot about them as they did about me.

Finally, I'd be remisced if I didn't get a chance to detail our lunch! Those of you familiar with The Works Gourmet Burger Bistro might know that last Tuesday, for lunch and dinner periods, offered free meals to partrons in lieu of a donation to HFHWC. Obviously, we weren't going to miss out on this! Collectively, we piled a bunch of money together as our donation and put in a giant order of delicious and juicy gourmet burgers. I 100% recommend the San Francisco Treat that features cheddar and Kraft Dinner. Yes, THE KRAFT DINNER!

The One and Only San Francisco Treat Burger!

It ended up being a memorable day for all of staff and something we'll plan more frequently. If you want in on this experience, please register to volunteer or contact Annie.