We Must Be a Little Touched!

January 22 – February 4, 2023

We spent our two weeks in Dade City, FL helping on a Habitat for Humanity (H4H) build.  H4H has a program called Care-A-Vanners.  It allows individuals with RVs to join together and as a team and build homes!  It’s a wonderful organization and we were thrilled to be able to add to H4H’s effort for a couple of weeks!   

Home for these two weeks!


I can’t take credit for the story below.  Don (a fellow Care-A Vanner from the build) read it to us one morning.  I couldn’t describe the reason we love this organization any better than what this story has to say:

We, as Care-A-Vanners, must be a little touched.  And I say that, as we must be out of our minds, living under these conditions.  Here we are, traveling thousands of miles, living in boxes on wheels which are a little smaller than our living rooms back home and not nearly as stable for when the wind blows, these units sway.  We must be touched, because we left the important people in our lives back home, our children and our grandchildren, family and friends.

You see, back home, because we are retired, we eat when we are hungry, we sleep when we are tired, we get out of bed when we want to.  But down here, it's like being in the Army. At 8:00 am sharp, we report and sign in. And then it's hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go. At home, we may have one person asking to do this or that, but down here we have not one overseer, but several like Jose, Vaughn, Leon and others, asking us to nail this, or paint that, and then paint it again and then caulk it and paint it again, and caulk it again and paint it yet again. Tell me, would anybody in their right mind put up with stuff like this unless they were really touched?  Yet, when we look at our dish washers, our Vitamix blenders, our Temperpedics and all the other modern conveniences we left behind, if truth be told, being here, in this place, at this moment is not only where we need to be, but where we want to be. And, we say that because being here we, as Care-A-Vanners, are touched on a more serious level, on a deeper level, even on a more personal level.

You see, in some ways we are all touched by the horrendous conditions under which people live, not only in this country but around the world.  We are touched by a little boy dragging his friend into his new room telling him, "This is my room!", which was a far cry from the one room where he and his whole family lived before.  We are touched by a mother who sees her new kitchen for the first time, and the expression on her face is priceless.  We are touched by the home owners we meet who, like the one a few days ago, came up to us and, in a most sincere manner, expressed his gratitude by saying, "Thank you for building our home".  We are touched by other volunteers who spend hours working with us, and who will still be here working, when we motor on.  We are touched by this affiliate who works hard to make our stay here as comfortable as possible.  We are touched by college students who, instead of heading to the beach, come down here to work.  We are all touched by their enthusiasm, their infectious spirit, and it gives us hope that our communities and our nation and our world will be a better place because of folks like these.  As Care-A-Vanners, our hearts, our minds, our very souls, are touched by all of this.  We are touched by that special spirit among us, and for that we can only say, "Thanks be to God".

The morning bell rang and we are getting the day's scoop!

It is such an amazing experience to spend a couple of weeks working beside like-minded people!  These people start out as complete strangers, but within a few short paint strokes, are soon great friends!  Our typical day on this build went like this: At 8:00 am we had a morning meeting in the Club House.  Here, we got the scoop on the what projects we would be tackling for the day, were advised of specific safety guidelines for that project, and had a short devotional.  We then either walked or drove the mile to the work site, where we primed, painted, caulked, sawed, hammered…  We took at short break at 10:00, lunch at noon, and were done for the day at 3:00.  Working on the build was always fun, as you were working alongside fellow campers and occasionally learning new skills!  For this build, we also worked a few days on a rehab home.  There, we put on our best Joanna and Chip faces and painted, power washed, repaired fences…  all in the effort to help someone achieve their dream of home ownership.  These new home owners will have successfully qualified for this home by having stable employment and proving they will be able to make their mortgage payments.  Yes, this is not a “hand-out but a hand-up” home.  They are required to put in many hours of painting and pounding nails themselves as well.  

Prep work for the siding!

Power washing the rehab home

Ron, Dave and myself doing a little fence repair at the rehab home

Sara and I priming the columns on one of the new builds

After the work day, other fun activities abounded!  Frequently, there was a 4:00 social hour that often included a campfire.  I had MANY opportunities for breaks from meal preps, as the group went to Del Carmen one-night, The Great Catch another night, had a pot-luck dinner one evening, and Vaughn grilled steak, celebrating our success on the final night we were there!

Social Hour has begun!

Frankie thinks Vaughn is the "Cat's meow"!

Del Carmen was Del-icious!

My personal "Great Catch"!

Mingled in between, we played a little pickleball, had an ice-cream social, put together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, almost won the Trivia night at a local bar, and took in the annual Dade City Kumquat Festival!  Who knew you could make so many delicious things from Kumquats?  Check out the Kumquat Growers Association for delicious recipes!  One would think you might lose a couple of pounds building homes, but this certainly was NOT the case!  As sad as we were to say our goodbyes and head out, I’d have to develop a lot more eating discipline if we were to stay any longer!  Dade City, we will be back in the near future!

Sharon, Barb, Lisa and I puzzling over the jigsaw!

Martin and Corinne proving pickleball can be dangerous as they sport their broken wrists!

Ice-cream, pie, bread, cookies, honey... so many tasty kumquat treats!

Bonnie and Darrell proved to be tough opponents!


Martin, Dick, Dave, Cynthia, Sara and I came close to being the trivia champs for the night!

Beef, it's what's for dinner!

Up next:  Clearwater!








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