This Saturday I was able to attend a volunteering event for Habitat for Humanity within the Orlando community. Over the course of 6 hours, my roommate and I were able to assist with the clean up of three of their houses that they built within the area and connect with many individuals there. During this event, we were able to meet with those from Habitat from Humanity to learn more about the organization and with the VoluntEARS from Disney to find out about more of the service projects that they work with through the company.

We started off the day at the location of the first two homes, which were already constructed but needed a thorough cleaning. So we spent the first three hours cleaning windows, deep cleaning the bathroom, and caulking the two houses to make them move in ready. I had never caulked anything before so I got to learn this home improvement skill and add it to my repertoire. After breaking for lunch, we then moved on to the third house where we need to sod the backyard and front yard which was just sand. Even though we didn’t get to actually build anything, we got to finish the job that many volunteers spent working hard on.

What I learned during my time there is that Habitat for Humanity is a Christian based organization that specializes in the restoration and construction of homes for individuals with low incomes. A common misconception about the organization is that they give out their houses for free, however, this is not the case. Homeowners still have a mortgage on these houses, but they are interest-free. These individuals also have to put in 200 hours of volunteering hours for Habitat for Humanity in other homes in order to be able to move on their own. One homeowner was there today with us as part of her service hours for her new home. Along with getting to work with a bunch of people from all over the area we also got meet some of the people who were there from Disney who help recruit people from the company to help with many different volunteering opportunities.

This group of individuals at the event have done many service projects with both this organization and others over the past couple years. The person in charge of it all Justin,  was the main communicator of the Disney volunteers and after signing up emailed us frequently to make sure we knew all the correct information. During the event I had a chance to talk to him and explain my reason for coming, he informed me that they have an email chain for the Disney VoluntEARS so then they know what events are taking place in the future. So along with being able to help a very good organization I got to network with those in the Disney community and make some connections, as well as being able to have information about future service projects that I can assist on in the coming months.