NEWS RELEASE
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY GUELPH WELLINGTON
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Habitat for Humanity Guelph Wellington is building a 32 unit stacked townhome just west of Downtown Fergus on Garafraxa Street West. With the project breaking ground soon, they are calling upon volunteers in the community who are interested in learning to help with the building. Their call for volunteers also includes Crew Leaders. Sarah Dermer, volunteer coordinator explains that “Crew Leaders act as mentors to the other volunteers. They help to create a fun and safe build and are super important to the success of our build programs.” She says that she is seeking folks with strong renovation/repair experience, communication skills, and knowledge of safe operating practices.
“I hadn’t realized how many interesting volunteer opportunities there are at Habitat for Humanity Guelph Wellington (Habitat GW) before I started working here,” says Dermer. Habitat GW has been lucky to bring on Dermer as the new Volunteer Coordinator this summer. She has been getting familiar with all aspects of Habitat for Humanity’s operations over the summer months and ready to hit the ground running for the upcoming builds.
Dermer said when she first started as Volunteer Coordinator, she thought she would be looking for people with all kinds of specific building experience; but it’s not just building experience they look for. Their Restores in Guelph and Fergus are seeking volunteers to help clean, receive donations in the warehouse, and assist customers on the floor. The Kitchen Salvage team is seeking volunteer power to help remove donated kitchens from homes and reinstall in the Restores for
sale.
“We have such a diverse group of volunteers. Some are young high school students fulfilling their 40 volunteer hours and others are retired folks, seeking meaningful ways to enhance their lives post-career,” Dermer explains. While there are almost 200 volunteers currently connected with Habitat GW, Dermer is always seeking to increase that number. “There is a never-ending supply of work needing to get done to ensure our vision of a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live can be achieved. So, the more volunteers we have, the better!”
Habitat GW builds homes across the area of Guelph and Wellington County. Since 2000, they’ve built 53 homes. This is the opportunity to be part of the next round of affordable housing.
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