ELEELE — Kauai Habitat for Humanity homeowners, staff and Global Village volunteers were sprawled throughout the Eleele Iluna site Friday where homes were coming to life.
“These 17 homes complete the first part of the project,” said Bob McNamara, Kauai Habitat project superintendent. “They also include three homes that will come up in the Phase II portion that was blessed earlier.”
Jan Roberta of Connecticut was the team leader for the latest volunteers who arrived in time to help with the footings for the new homes.
“This is a reunion group,” Roberta said. “Of the 10 members on the team, all have been to Kauai to help build before.”
The team broke into different groups, helping with footings, laying out lots and finishing homes waiting to be dedicated.
Habitat is trying to get the home finished for dedication by the end of the month, Roberta said.
“In the meantime, we need to start work on these new homes. The last time we came, we dug footings for four homes and did work on another two. Those homes are all done and it’s such a good feeling to see them completed after the work we did,” he said. “Yesterday, we had people working shoulder-to-shoulder with homeowners as we poured footings.”
Meanwhile, the excitement and energy of the future homeowners helped fuel the Global Village volunteers.
“This is sweat equity,” said Otis Ingram Jr. “Every homeowner needs to put in a certain amount of sweat equity. I’ve got the day off so this is for my sister, Karen Robinson, whose home will sit here.”
Mary Loza, along with her children, Haylee and Hyrie, stopped their work to view the Global Village volunteers troop up the sidewalks of Eleele Iluna to view a completed home, a signal that lunch hour had arrived at the work site.
“We had some time so we’re just finishing up some painting,” Loza said.
The family lives near Eleele Elementary School.
“We hope to start moving April 1 to our new home,” she said.
