Posts Tagged ‘Habitat for Humanity’

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Meet some of our favorite team members

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

They’re dog-gone adorable

If you’ve been to one of our ReStores, whether as a customer, shopper or volunteer, you may have been witness to unexpected moments of chaos! A mad pile-up of last minute donations, a dropped sink or the guy who wants us to fit a 6-piece cabinet set into his Miata.

While we have come to accept (and yes, appreciate) expecting the unexpected, we have to give props to those team members who bring a valued energy to the ReStore. These team members provide companionship, a calming energy, support, and sometimes a friendly lick…….WHAT?

Meet the dogs of the ReStore.

Dottie wants pets - and treats

Dottie is a 9 year old greyhound mix who loves greeting the volunteers in the morning and giving them those “sad” puppy-dog eyes in order to receive more love and treats.  Dottie likes to shadow her owner, so if Janell is on the move don’t expect Dottie to stick around.

Gabe's ready for anything

Gabe will be 8 years young in January. This handsome Burmese mix loves greeting customers at the door, especially the pint sized ones! Be careful of those loving eyes…no one can resist that sweet face.(Note: The Washington County ReStore had to recently limit the “fuzzy” visitors to only those who are Service Animals.)

Meka greets everyone

This feisty 3 year old short-haired collie mutt is never short on energy! Meka is very sweet and gentle and likes to keep watch at the top of the stairs at the store’s entrance to make sure she gets pets from everyone coming in. She likes little kids a lot (especially ones with cookies in their hands).

Izzy is very cool!

Our giant beauty is about 5 years old and full of wags. Izzy likes to lean on her favorite people (she’s pretty heavy, so be prepared.) She gets lots of love from the customers and volunteers, and she really likes how cool the concrete floor is. Izzy follows her human friend, Craig, everywhere, but as long as she can hear him she is available for a hug, a pet, and a scratch behind the ears.

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Meet our Volunteer Coordinators

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Have you ever considered volunteering at the ReStore?  We have three hard working Volunteer Coordinators who are happy to help you find just the right fit. We asked them several questions to let you get to know them a little.

MaliaPortland ReStore
Name:  Malia Tam Sing

What do you appreciate most about volunteers in the ReStores?

I appreciate that not only do our volunteers give their time to our organization, but the great attitudes and smiles that come along with their service.

What are your current greatest volunteer needs at your location?

We need volunteer drivers to pick up donations with our box truck on Thursday mornings, and truck crew assistants on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. This volunteer opportunity is a weekly commitment, please contact me for more details.

How long have you been with Habitat For Humanity?

Six years – two with AmeriCorps and almost four with the ReStore.

What is the craziest/scariest item that you’ve seen come in as a donation?

Antique hand puppets. Nightmare causing, creepy little hand puppets.

If you could be any tool in the toolbox, what would it be?

A cat’s paw, which is great for fixing mistakes.

ColleenWashington County ReStore
Name:  Colleen O’Toole

What do you appreciate most about volunteers in the ReStores?

Their willingness to get the job done! We have some of the most amazing volunteers. They are flexible and excited to tackle whichever task comes through that donation door!

What are your current greatest volunteer needs at your location?

We always need volunteers to go out on our truck to help pick up donations. We typically schedule pick ups during our morning shift from 9-1 and need some good strong backs to ride along with our staff driver, Mike.

How long have you been with Habitat For Humanity?

I’ve been working at the Restore since January 2011 – a little over a year-and-a-half.  I also did an internship with an affiliate in Michigan and have volunteered at affiliates in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA.

What is the craziest/scariest item that you’ve seen come in as a donation?

One of the coolest things that we have gotten in at the Washington County store would have to be the hair dryer chairs – or stylist chairs?  Most of the scary things we get have very large spiders or fake snakes attached!

If you could be any tool in the toolbox, what would it be?

That’s a tough question. There are some really great tools out there.  If I had to, I’d choose a cat’s paw. It’s a simple tool but I like it.

Janell Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store
Name:  Janell Watt

What do you appreciate most about volunteers in the ReStores?

What I appreciate the MOST is the time they are willing to spend helping us run our store.  Even when the sun is shining and it’s beautiful outside, we have an incredible army of volunteers who choose to spend a few hours helping us get through the day.

What are your current greatest volunteer needs at your location?

We need volunteers who can commit to one 4-hour shift a week helping us run our front end.  We have lots of shifts available, and we’re pretty flexible. This is a great position for someone who likes to talk to people, is a creative thinker and/or anyone who likes to keep busy and organized. Plus, you get to hang out with yours truly.

How long have you been with Habitat For Humanity?

3 years as a volunteer with the Portland affiliate, and a little over 3 years as Volunteer Coordinator at the Vancouver Store.

What is the craziest/scariest item that you’ve seen come in as a donation?

I would say that the giant swordfish takes the cake. It came in as part of a huge donation from Red Lobster when they remodeled their restaurant. It lasted about 30 seconds on the floor before it sold…I miss him, and I hope he’s in a good home.

If you could be any tool in the toolbox, what would it be?

I would be a hammer. I’d hammer in the morning and in the evening. I’d hammer all over this land.

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Building together

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

birdhousesIf you attended the Home and Garden Idea Fair in Clark County this year you saw lots of great home improvement ideas and probably discovered many creative things to put on your garden wish list. You also may have heard tons of pounding, excited chatter and lots of laughter.

That commotion was the result of a four-way collaboration, born through heightened community awareness and networking between the Clark County Skills Center, Clark County Environmental Services, the Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store and our new Building Material Recovery Program.

girls building birdhousesHow did it come together? (Deep breath!) The Lifetime Fence Company in Vancouver contacted me about salvaging used cedar fencing from some of their teardown projects, and of course we were happy to oblige. We took the lumber to the Clark County HFH Store, processed it and set it aside for sale and for use in future projects.

birdhouse buildingThe environmental services folks approached the HFH Store about purchasing some wood for their summer kids projects (birdhouse making), and of course the HFH Store was happy to oblige. The environmental staff needed bird house parts cut and contacted the Clark County Skills Center about using its occupational training center for the wood work, and of course they were happy to oblige.

At the fair with boxes of parts that needed assembly there were plenty of willing hands and smiling faces ready to oblige! I’m sure if we listened hard enough we would hear lots of newly-housed bird families across town saying, “Much obliged!”

Thanks for the partnerships. This is a small but great example of what we can do when we work together, using everyone’s gifts to make all our worlds a better place.

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Have you seen our new sign?

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Nick and Matt painting mural

Nick and Matt’s hand painted sign in the Portland store  is a work of art.

The ReStore volunteer spotlight shines on two people this month, Nick Cogswell and Matt Davis. In February, Nick approached store manager Shel Reinwald about painting a sign on the wall that separates the front and back rooms of the Portland ReStore. Shel asked that Nick show her his design idea and if she liked it, he could start.

About a week later, Nick came back with an impressive design and was given the green light to start painting. He and longtime friend and business partner Matt Davis began their work in mid-March, and three and a half weeks later the sign was complete. Many store patrons have stopped to admire the fantastic sign on the once blank wall.

Nick painting the mural

When asked why they chose our store as the canvas for their sign, Nick and Matt both said they really appreciate what Habitat does for the community, and they were also excited for the opportunity to do what they love – paint signs by hand. They believe that hand-painting signs is a dying art in the digital age, that they stand out more, and that the charm is in the imperfection. We couldn’t agree more.

A big warm Habitat thank you to Nick and Matt for bringing beauty to our store!

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The HFH Store at Umpqua Bank

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Once again, Umpqua Bank graciously gives us space in its Vancouver, WA branches to provide its customers with information about the Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store. We did this last year, too and it was a great success. Not only does this partnership showcases Umpqua’s commitment to the local community, it gives us an opportunity to inform people about our stores and our mission to support Habitat and keep usable materials out of the waste stream. We get to reach people who don’t know our stores are a great place to shop and a worthy destination for items they wish to donate.

Umpqua display

In March, we had displays in Umpqua’s Downtown and Mill Plain branches. This month our displays move to the Hazel Dell and Evergreen branches. Each Saturday in April, the HFH Store truck will park in an Umpqua Bank’s parking lot to collect materials donations. The truck will collect donations between 9:30 am and 2:30 pm and you can bring items to donate. Here’s the schedule.

April 7 – Vancouver Downtown, 1400 Washington Street

April 14 – Mill Plain, 12019 SE Mill Plain Blvd

April 21 – Hazel Dell, 600 NE 99th St

April 28 – Vancouver Evergreen Square, 16409 SE 1st St

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“Wait – let me see that!”

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Reuse, recycle, and repurpose are words we use daily and values we incorporate into the daily running of our Habitat for Humanity ReStores – we want to practice what we preach! We have ample opportunities for repurposing materials and are always trying to think creatively and see things with a “crafty” and useful eye.

At the Clark County Habitat for Humanity Store, we’ve been blessed with several creative and experienced woodworkers. For starters, they have an amazing passion for the success of the store. They believe in our mission and will do whatever is needed to help us bring that mission to fruition. In doing so, they have lots of fun and have built some lasting friendships along the way.

They also build lots of wood things. From garden benches and chairs, to tool boxes, birdhouses, tables, rustic garden furniture, shelves and planter boxes, they regularly churn out cool item after cool item from the material donations we receive. I’m amazed at the creative ideas of our customers and volunteers – I’ve learned so much from you guys!

These woodworkers transformed a small corner of our warehouse (only 100 sq. ft.) using salvaged cabinets, old doors, cast off tools and other donated materials to create an amazingly efficient and professional wood working shop – one that I never would have dreamed we’d have and that I totally enjoy using. They have taken complete ownership of the workshop and truly make us better than we could be by ourselves. It’s awesome to hear the saws running, the nails being pounded, the laughter echoing in the back room and yes – my having to sweep up sawdust again because of their efforts.

That’s the “Habi-magic” that I have witnessed from our volunteers over and over through the years; passionate, skilled people seeing a need, matching their unique talents to a task and pooling those talents with others to help those around them. They selflessly give of themselves with no thought of reward.

Thank you guys for helping others build a better life for themselves and their families and for helping us build a better and more reuse oriented store!

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Billboards to bags project

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

You may remember seeing Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East’s billboard campaign, “Habitat for Portland” around town last fall. After the billboards came down, ReStore Managers Shel Mae and Alex Bertolucci spent some time thinking about the best use for the billboards. The first thought was to display them at our ReStores, but then Alex suggested they be turned into reusable tote bags. The Billboards to Bags Project was born!

Billboard bagsWith a little sewing experience under her belt, Shel Mae designed a simple, easy to assemble bag. Rob Maldonado, our Portland ReStore Warehouse Assistant, turned Shel’s drawings into hard board patterns, and Cindy Correll, our Marketing Manager, created labels for the bags.

Our first cutting day was a huge success! Seven excited volunteers showed up to the Portland ReStore for the project. Our first banner was so big that when we unrolled it, it took up an entire aisle way in the ReStore! Just managing the size and getting it cut was a major undertaking. But by the end of the day, we had 135 bags ready to sew.

With the help of a ReStore volunteer, we discovered Spooltown, a small,  locally owned and operated sewing factory on N. Williams Ave. Spooltown worked with us to finalize the pattern and gave us a very reasonable price to produce the bags.

Billboard Bags
Billboard Bags

The billboard bags turned out great, and they are for sale now for only $10 each at our Portland, Beaverton and Vancouver stores. Watch our video that tells the story.

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How the ReStore saved Christmas

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Christmas was ruined!
(Not really, but over dramatizing events helps me cope)

It was two days before Christmas and my husband and I decided it was finally time to open up the box and assemble the play kitchen (that we bought weeks ago) for my daughter, Olivia.  Unfortunately we discovered a couple of pieces had been damaged….dang!  The last thing I was going to do was drive all over town, looking for a play kitchen, two days before Christmas.

What am I going to tell Olivia?!?!  “Olivia, darling…your present from Santa fell off the sled, so the elves took it back to the North Pole for repairs and will send it back with the Easter Bunny.” Okay….she’s only one-and a-half , too young to even understand what Christmas is.  The only heart that’s broken is mama’s.

Olivia in her kitchenI had been toying with idea of making her a kitchen, but being a full time working mom during the holidays doesn’t lend itself to a lot of free time.  So, out of tragedy comes an opportunity to create a unique play kitchen for at least half the price of what I would pay for a new one. Sweet!

I googled DIY play kitchen and came across some great blogs.  Like this kitchen made from an outdated entertainment center.  Or this kitchen made from a night stand.  There are TONS of ideas out there…it’s easy to become obsessed.

cabinets - beforeI started gathering material by scouring the Portland and Vancouver Habitat ReStores and started with these average ‘ol kitchen cabinets.

I removed the doors, sanded any rough edges and drilled holes for the sink and faucet.  The sink was the only non-ReStore item…a baking pan from Goodwill.  I added white wire shelving in each of the cupboards, one for the “stove” and one for the under sink storage.

stovetopAt the Vancouver Store, we are lucky to share a space with another non-profit, EmpowerUP, and I was able to snag some computer fan covers that work perfectly as burners for a stove!

I added bun feet to raise the counter height, but they also look totally cute…don’t you think?   I painted a black square for the “stove top,” screwed on the fan covers, and what is NOT pictured are the stove knobs that I added.  You can use drawer pulls for the stove knobs, or you can get the real thing at the ReStore.

I switched the hinges on one door so that it would open like a real stove, and added a custom made curtain courtesy of psoup, who makes AWESOME bags and accessories out of reclaimed materials (you should totally check out her onion bag totes…so cute!!).

I was so excited to bring home the finished project for Olivia!  She LOVES it, and makes me tea, soup and sandwiches every day.  It’s just her size, and I love the personal touches.

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We’re ready to tear it out

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

tearing out cabinetsWe often receive requests to tear out kitchens and bathrooms, and until now we haven’t been able to help.

Through our new Building Material Recovery service, we can say “yes” when you ask us to remove your cabinets, sinks, appliances, doors and other items. You’ll get a tax deduction receipt for the items you donate to the ReStore, and we’ll leave your site clean and ready for the next phase of your project.

See our website for details about this new service, or contact Mark Haley at 503.535.9141 or at mark@pdxrestore.org.

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Dan’s Last Days in Mongolia

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Because a few people in our group work in the medical field, we were offered a tour of one of the local hospitals. We toured the Emergency Department, Labor and Delivery, the Operating Room and standard care wards. One of the physicians who talked to us was a woman who has worked at the hospital for 34 years. It was interesting to compare and contrast the care provided. Great care was shown, especially to hospitalized children. Rooms were brightly decorated and there were places for parents so that they could be present to ease their children’s fears.

Back at the work sites, the building continued. At the first house, some of us were finishing the support for the roof while others were applying a cement wall covering to both the inside and the outside of the house. After we placed the final roof supports, we started placing the metal roofing. The roofing was an orange color to provide contrast with the red, blue and green roofs on nearby houses.

At the second house, we cut and placed insulation into the ceiling and prepared the floor for the pouring of its concrete finish. The son of the future owner of the house applied the outer cement surface to the house.

On our final day, we continued to place roofing, apply cement to the walls and pour the floor in the second house. We also sealed the window casings. As we neared the end of our build time, we could stand back and see how far we had come. From arriving to find a plot marked out with string to now seeing a nearly finished home, we could all sit back and feel a great sense of accomplishment in what we had done in a relatively short period of time.

inside GerOlna, the lady from the first house, prepared a thank you and farewell meal of dumplings, fruit, cheese, juice and tea and gave each of us a gift to say thank you. After saying our goodbyes, we went to the second house to bid our farewell to the family. The father also gave us a small gift to say thank you and told us that he had been talking to his wife every day and giving her updates on the house. She was in the southern part of Mongolia about 600 miles away and had yet to see her new house.

After saying our goodbyes, we headed back to our hotel to pack for our return to Ulaan Baatar. We had dinner that evening with the local Habitat people and said our final farewells. We left early the next morning in order to get to Ulaan Baatar by late morning to allow for some local sight seeing and final preparations for everyone’s departure. Following local sightseeing, we were treated to a show of Mongolian dance and singing. The folk music and dance was very festive and upbeat. Afterwards, we had dinner at one of the local restaurants and went back to our hostel for our final night as a group.

At the hostel we said our farewells as we prepared to part ways. Some people were planning to return home, others would continue on trips to the Gobi Desert, China and other locations. We came together as strangers and left as friends. If you have the opportunity for this type of trip, I would recommend it. It was a unique experience that should not be missed.

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