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April 1, 2021

Happy Volunteer Appreciation Month!

By Ali Summerville

This blog post is written by guest author Ali Summerville, Habitat Charlotte Region’s Board Chair. Ali, our Board of Directors and Habitat Charlotte Region’s leadership team have diligently worked together to ensure the safety of our families, staff, customers and volunteers has been the number one priority for Habitat Charlotte Region during these challenging times.

Greetings Habitat Friends,

In March 2020, Habitat Charlotte Region made the challenging decision to suspend in-person volunteer activity as COVID-19 arrived in our communities. The past year has been one of ups and downs and has given Habitat Charlotte Region a newfound appreciation for our volunteers.

Our volunteers demonstrated creativity and resourcefulness as they figured out how to serve remotely. Financial literacy presenters learned to teach through Zoom. Finance volunteers used cloud-based software from home. Staff took a real-life crash course in epidemiology and redesigned work processes to ensure safety for partner families, customers, and themselves. All of this, while Habitat Charlotte Region managed to continue to build houses and reopen its ReStores without volunteers. But we discovered it was neither easy nor fun. If we ever had any question about how valuable our volunteers were to us, they were quickly answered. We missed you all!

Habitat Charlotte Region happily welcomed back our regular volunteers in July with many precautions. Over the fall and winter, we have gradually welcomed back more volunteers as we all adjusted to serving amid a pandemic. We have also thought often of our volunteers who have chosen to stay home during these difficult times and prayed for everyone’s safety while staying in touch with emails, phone calls, and Zoom hang outs.

This Volunteer Appreciation Month, we are more grateful than ever for our volunteers. Our staff and homeowners truly know the value of your partnership with us. We look forward to the day that we can show that appreciation in person.

Won’t you join this great group of committed individuals changing our community? Volunteers are needed at our Restores and our Construction sites. Explore the links below to learn more, and to sign up for your next volunteer shift today.

With gratitude,
Ali Summerville

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