Fairchild Airmen build Habitat homes

Published March 18, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Connie L. Bias
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The 5500 block of East Union Street can leave your feet trembling, if you're lucky. When the trains roll past you're close enough to feel that advancing rumble, catch that palpable explosion of assaulted air.

Once the railroad clears, you'll get a view of Felt's Field Airport close enough to spy on the daily tasks of an airplane mechanic or the preflight operations of a pilot. Good timing could even offer you a free flyby.

You'll see all of this across a row of groomed lawns holding up tidy, mid-sized homes, some still in initial construction phases. An average sampling, it would seem, of a growing middle-class Spokane suburb where kids get to wave at the evening train while Mom and Dad mow the grass or cook dinner.

But this block is not so average. The moms and dads don't take their middle-class standing as lightly as the average worker, the kids chasing planes don't take their home security for granted like the average child, and the onsite construction workers are not your average hired crew.

The houses on this block are Habitat for Humanity homes, sold to families living in substandard conditions and earning less than half of Spokane's median income level - sometimes as little as 25 percent of the mean. The houses are sold at cost with a zero-percent interest rate, with some mandatory "sweat equity" required from the gaining family.

That unbeatable interest rate is possible because there are no labor costs. Construction crews building the homes are made up of volunteers pulled together from numerous community organizations, schools, etc. Faces from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., show up regularly to volunteer on those crews. In fact, Fairchild's 66th Training Squadron, part of the Survival, Resistance, Evasion and Escape School on the base, comprised the bulk of the builders March 13, continuing more than a decade of working relations between Habitat and Fairchild.

"Habitat-Spokane builds sixteen homes each year, and one home was built entirely by Fairchild employees, back in the early 90s," said Michone Preston, Habitat-Spokane executive director. "We generally have an influx of volunteers from the base, and they're people who know how to work very hard ... They've been crucial to our success."

Many of the Training Squadron volunteers have construction experience, though Ms. Preston is quick to add that experience is not necessary; Habitat employees running the onsite activities are always present to teach, direct and look over volunteers' shoulders. This latest group of Fairchild volunteers also came with their own teacher, Chief Master Sgt. Jon Stuhr, 66th TRS superintendent, who has enough experience to give his Airmen what he calls "some Construction 101."

"Most of our guys, though, if you give them an issue or a problem, they're really good at figuring out how to make it work," said the chief, who started volunteering for Habitat in when he was stationed at Fairchild in the 90s, working on about seven homes during that previous tour. "We have several members of the squadron who do this on a regular basis, and all kinds of Airmen here. We've got guys who have been in the military for 18 months and guys like me who have been in for 17 years."

Because of that cross-section of age, experience and rank, volunteering for Habitat not only allows the 66th Airmen to help others, but also gives the group a chance to grow as a team, to work with each other in a different setting and get to know each other as individuals outside the daily mission. Even more importantly, it "shows the young guys that we don't just head over to Iraq and blow things up. We build things up. We help in the community," said Chief Stuhr.

That help will allow Habitat-Spokane to complete thirty-one Union Street homes by the end of June, a project that began in 1999. From there, the organization isn't sure where they'll build next, said Ms. Preston. Developed land isn't generally available for Habitat homes. (The Union Street site, for example, initially had to be rezoned from a commercial to residential area. After that hurdle Habitat started from square one, laying sidewalks before home construction could begin.) Habitat is "aggressively looking for land," she said, expanding their search to outlying areas like Airway Heights and Medical Lake. While that search for land is a constantly evolving process, though, Ms. Preston does hope one thing will remain constant - the reliable volunteer help from Fairchild.

"I can't say enough about our partnership with Fairchild," said Ms. Preston, noting that all of those volunteer hours bring Habitat-Spokane much closer to putting another family into one of those tidy homes with groomed lawns. "It's really an amazing experience."

Editor's note: If you'd like to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, go to www.habitat-spokane.org or call 534-2552.