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Theresa (last name not provided) is one of several homeowners who in the past year has received home repairs through Building Kindness, a program of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamos, N.M.


ect!” Rojas responds. Just then Bell walks out of the trailer. “David, I thought you should know,” he says, “the whole ceiling is bowing on the inside from the weight of the guys on the roof.”


Compared to the last job, when a volunteer fell through the rotted


Building Kindness —and bridges


Text and photo by Stephanie Pearson O


n a dry, dusty Saturday sum- mer morning, an eclectic crew of volunteers works up a sweat rehabbing a 1970 single-wide trailer that sits about a mile west of the Rio Grande River in Hernandez, N.M. Kathryn Wilcutt, a retired elemen- tary school teacher from nearby Los Alamos, measures 2-by-4s to prop up the kitchen counter. Raul Rojas, pastor of Victory Outreach, an evangelical church in Hernandez, spreads sticky tar on the roof. Out back, neighbor Loretta Atencio rakes the dirt yard, while inside, John Bell, the interim youth and family pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamos, tears down the sagging bedroom ceiling. The boss, David Canfield, moves from bedroom to kitchen and roof. “What do you think?” Canfield yells up to Rojas from the bottom of the ladder. “I think this is a big proj-


Pearson is a freelance writer in Sante Fe, N.M., a contributing editor to Outside, and Outside Online’s “Gear Girl” columnist.


28 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


kitchen floor, this trailer is in immaculate shape. It just needs upgrades—and that is what “Building Kindness” does best. The partnership between Beth- lehem and Habitat for Humanity of Española Valley and Los Alamos focuses on working with low- income homeowners on low-cost improvements to their existing structures. The average project, which can be anything from building a handicap ramp to


installing a shower, costs from $300 to $800, which the homeowner has to even- tually pay back in full. Most materials are sourced from the Habitat for Human- ity ReStore in Española and community volunteers do all the labor for free. Bethlehem started Building Kindness last October after it received a sur- prise $400,000 endowment. They hired Canfield, a sculptor and home remod- eler, as the program’s coordinator. Canfield then outfitted a donated 12-foot trailer with tools he bought with an additional $6,000 grant from a local foun- dation and a 20 percent discount from the Española Lowes. In the last year, he and his rotating volunteer crew have completed projects for 13 families. Ulti- mately, Building Kindness hopes to help more than 20 families per year. “We’re making just as big of an impact for the families, but we’re making a much smaller investment in manpower,” said Bell, comparing Building Kind- ness to the more traditional Habitat programs that build one or two houses per year. “The beauty of this program is these two communities live side by side but are almost invisible to each other, and this helps us get to know each other.” Indeed. Los Alamos County, which sits high in the Jemez Mountains and is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory, is one of the 10 wealthiest counties in the U.S., with an average household income of $100,423, according to the U.S. Census. Down in the valley less than 20 miles away, Hernandez and Española sit in Rio Arriba County, where the median household income is $29,429. Canfield prides himself on providing quality work and keeps a close eye on


his crew, which sometimes means volunteers have to redo their work. This day, he is showing two volunteers how to start over on a messy re-caulking job on a sink. But Theresa (last name not provided), the 51-year-old homeowner who is rolling tortillas nearby, is happy with any improvement. “I didn’t expect this many people to be helping,” she said. “This is a good boost.” M


For more information, contact buildingkindness@habitatevla.org.


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