|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Children & Youth Worship & Music Newcomer, Family & Fellowship Growth and Spirituality Pastoral Ministries Mercy & Justice Vision, Mission & Strategic Plan Leadership & Staff History & Church Information St. Michael’s Episcopal Church |
|
Habitat for Humanity Thanks to Our Volunteers Over 1,000 people worked on the Saints Habitat house on The majority of those volunteers didn’t come from the
sponsors. Thanks be to God for the wonderful work by
Sacramento Habitat for Humanity’s volunteer coordinators, Kris Cerlenko and Jeannie Barry-Sanders. Our Altos build
greatly benefited from their efforts. Our church volunteers also played a critical role. St.
Michael’s is much smaller, size-wise, than either St. Ignatius or St.
Mark’s, but our church provided one-third of the initial sponsorship
money and more than one-quarter of the churches’ volunteers. Thank you,
all. This final Habitat column honors Dick Pryor. During
construction, Dick attended most of the Tuesday morning Habitat meetings to
find out what would be needed in the coming week. He called in the
information so Diane could share it in our group e-mail updates. Then he went
to work on the house, and he didn’t just work on Saturdays. He came
whenever there was a need. He brought others with him. He put his many construction
skills to work, solving problems as they arose. His calm positive example and
ability to teach what he knows always made the work go more smoothly for all. Now that the Altos house is finished, Dick intends to include
other Habitat projects in his broad-reaching construction ministry. Thank
you, Dick, for leading by example and for using your skills in outreach to
literally build Christ’s kingdom. The Saints’ House will be dedicated at 11:00 a.m. on
Saturday, June 10, at Habitat Celebration on June 10 Join us
at the dedication of the Saints’ Habitat for Humanity house at Together,
we will celebrate the outreach partnership of St. Michael’s Episcopal
Church, St. Mark’s The
house passed final inspection on March 30 and the Petrenko
family has qualified to take possession of the house. SHRA has its own rules
and regulations and must approve everything before the family moves in. If you
plan to attend the dedication, pick up a T shirt after church on Sunday, May
28, or Sunday, June 4. Then, wear your T-shirt to the dedication as a symbol
of the unity of the many who made this possible. “Gravlee” Care-A-Vanners George and Diane Gravlee, Habitat “Care-A-Vanners,” were featured in the January 2006 issue of Ladies Home Journal. John and Charlotte Gravlee are members of our Saints Habitat team and
friends of fellow parishioner Cheryl Hammond, so we asked Yes, John and I are the west coast contingent of the Gravlee Care-A-Vanners. George and John are brothers, about five years apart in age. We have been involved with Habitat ever since we retired a few years ago…but don’t “full-time” like George and Diane do. We started out with a couple of builds a year and are
steadily adding on to them as time goes by. We usually confine ourselves to
builds out west as we don’t have the travel flexibility full-timers
have. So far we have built in I cannot begin to tell you how much we enjoy our new lifestyle. We have always enjoyed traveling and seeing new places and new things, but this adds an additional spice to our lives. I think that many affiliates who do not make use of Care-A-Vanners do not understand exactly what they are getting when they invite a group to participate in a build. We usually go to a new build site and start work from the foundation up. On many of the builds, the foundation or slab has been poured. We begin by laying the sub-floor or start building the walls. A Care-A-Vanner group of 12 to 14 people (many of whom are retirees) works for two weeks and can do an enormous amount of work in that time. We have taken a house from the foundation to the roof in a week and then moved on to do the plumbing, electrical, insulation and sheet rocking on the second week. In fact, many times the locals are amazed at how fast we can go through materials and are always having to run off and arrange for more materials to be delivered so we can continue to work! We have also been on builds where we were involved in the finishing work: painting, window trim, decks, etc. The Care-A-Vanners appreciate having a place to park their motor homes and water, electric and sewer hook-ups provided at a reduced rate, if possible. One of the nicest “perks” to Habitat work is meeting people from all over the country and making new friendships wherever we go. We do stay in touch with many of our new friends either in person, by mail or by e-mail. Quite often we will get a chance to work with them again in some other part of the country, and it is just like meeting up with family when we get together. Another perk is the chance to learn new things. John was always very handy with construction work, and was at ease with many of the tasks he was assigned. I, on the other hand, was one of those people who thought I could maybe do a little painting. Imagine my surprise when I found out I liked to hammer, caulk and sheet rock but really, REALLY loved to saw wood! I love learning how to do new things and, as a former teacher, love to teach other women how to use a chop saw and a Skil saw, as well as all the other skills we learn on the job. Many of the women I work with have developed, as I have, tool lust — the desire to go to just one more hardware store and find the latest addition for their tool belt. (Forget jewelry — just look at this new claw bar or drill set or sanding block!). We, too, feel blessed in our life (must be a family thing)
and enjoy having this as one of the ways we can give back to people,
communities and the world — one house at a time. 3-Saint Thanksgivings We give thanks for all the saints, both within and without our three churches — St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic, St. Mark’s United Methodist and our own St. Michael’s Episcopal — who are building the Habitat for Humanity house at 3337 Altos Avenue. In this issue, we especially honor two groups:
Volunteers
still are needed to complete the interior of the house. No experience is
required! If you are able to volunteer or would like to receive weekly
updates by email, contact Diane Craig, Click Here For Email. Progress Report According to Sacramento Habitat for Humanity, the 3-Saints build is making great progress. See our photos - click this link! The siding has gone up over a period of several weeks. Shingles are, at press time, sitting on the roof. There has been some delay in roofing. A vendor is donating the gutters, and they must be delivered and installed before the roof can be completed. So far the weather has cooperated, thanks be to God! Another delay has occurred because, among the three congregations, we have not had an available plumber. St. Michael’s Kelly Meek will be making room in his schedule to help with this. When Habitat’s Superintendent of Construction Mark
Brothers was asked to estimate a finishing date for the house, he cautioned
that factors such as these make any estimate difficult. We definitely are on
God’s timetable! Volunteers
(This list does not include the photographers, prayers, food suppliers, registrars and other support.) If your name belongs on this construction list but is missing, we need to hear from you. Also, if your email address has changed, please notify Diane at dcraig101@hotmail.com. Thank you all for your support of this ministry. Where it all began... Father Jim Straukamp set
the goal before us: to raise $13,333 so that we could partner with St.
Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church and St. Marks United Methodist Church to
build a Habitat for Humanity house in We presented a plan to the Vestry, who went as far as they could go in the absence of a rector to encourage us to raise the funds. We began with a Sunday bulletin insert from Father Jim, asking St. Michael's parishioners as a Lenten discipline to forgo pizza or a movie and contribute the $7/week saved to Sacramento Habitat for Humanity. With Bob Pacholik's hardhat in hand, we distributed Lenten Habitat envelopes. Folks showed up at our first committee meeting in April; we also met with Sacramento Habitat for Humanity representatives and our partner committees from St. Ignatius and St. Marks. We sold tickets to the May 14 and 15 Valley Choral Society concerts, with all proceeds going to what has become known as the Saints Habitat for Humanity project. We established a "Patrons' Steppingstones" container in the narthex for loose change. Many patrons stepped forward with larger sums to help us reach our goal. On June 18, Rita Gibson and her husband Charlie hosted a fabulous champagne brunch fundraiser. In all, we raised more than $14,000, and new Rector Mary Hauck signed the formal Habitat partnership agreement. We especially thank Pastor Mary, For 2005, with continued prayers, we have only to build the house. Submitted by |
Copyright © 2007 St. Michael's Episcopal Church -
July 31, 2007
- Contact the Webmaster with any problems |
