Volunteers get a lesson from an experienced staff member in how to side a house.

The work—and the kindness—continued at the Carter Work Project in San Jose on Day 4. Teams of volunteers—about half have been here all week, the other half new that day—moved out a little earlier than usual to worksites, determined to finish what was started a few days before.

I’ve seen it happen on other week-long service events, volunteers taking ownership of the project, determined to finish before they have to leave on Friday. A sense of urgency takes over on Day 4, because typically the last day is not a full day. Tomorrow projects come to an end just before 2 p.m.

On this day everyone left from Lake Cunningham Park to job sites for the entire day, rather than returning midday for lunch, saving travel time to and from the worksites before and after. Which meant the support staff volunteers at home base had to scramble in the late morning to divide and pack up the day’s lunch for pickup by site hosts. There were less sites on this day, since three home repair jobs were completed in the first three days, leaving five repair sites and two home renovations.

In my role as Social Media Volunteer, I spent most of my day writing stories about volunteers and staff at the event for Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, as well as taking photos. The highlight of my day was interviewing an amazing 79-year-old woman who criss-crosses the country in a RV to build Habitat homes. I was honored to hear her story. I’ll post a link to it later.