CINCINNATI — While former President Jimmy Carter never swung a hammer at any of the Habitat for Humanity homes built in the Greater Cincinnati area, he inspired generations of volunteers who chose to pitch in and help build.
“He is the reason I had first heard of Habitat of Humanity,” said John Nolan. “One of our former leaders of Habitat Cincinnati worked with him in Haiti.”
Nolan volunteers on a variety of projects and incorporates volunteers from his church and others passing on the message of giving back that Carter and his wife share.
“Somebody like the Carters who for 40 years have rolled up their sleeves and worked right alongside volunteers building, repairing, restoring over 4,300 homes changing 4,300 lives that’s an exceptional legacy,” said Tracy Wells with Habitat for Humanity.
Wells said local Habitat for Humanity volunteers in the Greater Cincinnati area will build, repair or renovate 17 homes this year and have completed the same types of projects on 680 homes total. Some of those builds are being finished up in Oxford, where a street is named ‘Carter Court’ in honor of the former president.
“Just to honor his legacy because it is so unusual to have someone of his magnitude be an ambassador for an organization like ours,” Wells said.
Habitat for Humanity not only builds homes it’s building communities of first-time homeowners.
“It’s been an extraordinary benefit to Habitat to see a guy like this, even in his older age, participate in something like this,” Nolan said. “To be so enthusiastic about it, recognizing it’s an affordable housing path for the common man and woman.”
As part of the process, future homeowners have to contribute hundreds of hours to the build with volunteer hours on-site doing the physical work or in the Habitat Restore locations.
Nolan said being able to help lift up his fellow man inspires him to help carry Habitat’s mission and share it with others.
“Painting a wall, nailing a stud into place, putting kitchen cabinets into place, you’re doing something permanent that maybe will outlive you and in any case will be part of a happy home for a family who would have little chance of getting a home otherwise,” he said.
Wells said that like Carter, many of their volunteers are aging. She hopes that younger generations continue to participate in the favorite pastime of Carter and so many others
“We have volunteers that are on our build sites two days a week these are exceptional volunteers, but we need more of them because I’ll be honest this volunteer group is aging,” she said. “To have that level of dedication is very hard to replace.”
If you’d like to volunteer individually or gather a group of volunteers to go help with a build, head over to habitatcincinnati.org.
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