'No one is a stranger'

Alice Perry currently works two jobs to support herself and her 17-year-old grandson. She found out about Habitat through her daughter, Erica, who is also building a Habitat house during the JCWP this week. In fact, Erica’s house will be right next door.

Alice Perry has made friends from all over during the Jimmy Carter Work Project.

Alice has enjoyed the camaraderie that exists on the JCWP build site between people who didn’t know each other just a week before. “I was talking to someone from Maryland who drove all the way to Detroit to help with this project,” she says. “It’s like a big family. No one is a stranger.”

Although house building is tough work, Alice has discovered that the energy on a Habitat build site makes the workload easy to handle. “It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “I didn’t expect that. I thought, ‘This is going to be hard,’ but it’s been great.”

This week in Detroit Alice has discovered the experience Habitat volunteers know very well: “This is awesome,” she says. “Habitat is like a bright star shining in the sky.”