Marilyn Williams
Every year since 1996, Marilyn has spent each consecutive day for two weeks building with Habitat for Humanity East Bay. She enjoys volunteering in this way because she feels she can be more productive when she builds for consecutive days, giving her the opportunity to get the hang of the construction tasks that need to be done during that timeframe.
“It’s inspiring to see such careful thought put into how she can best serve Habitat and our partner families,” expresses Volunteer Coordinator, Matt Durham.
Site Supervisor Chrissy Thomas adds, "Marilyn is very obliging and will happily and eagerly take on any task that needs doing, even if it's cleaning the homes or moving materials."
Thank you, Marilyn, for your many years of volunteering!
"One of the early building days for which I volunteered was “Building on Faith” and the pastor that spoke at the beginning of the day said two things that I will always remember. First, that our mission is nothing less than decent housing for all people on this earth, and second, that something truly worthwhile is probably not going to be completed in your lifetime.
As a Christian, I feel I am called to help build the “beloved community” and when I get discouraged about how slowly social justice is happening, I remember those words. I am a member of First Presbyterian Church of Oakland (which is also where Habitat East Bay offices are located) and I consider my volunteer work with Habitat as a part of my tithe of time, talent, and money for God’s work in the world.
As a retired kindergarten/reading teacher (June 2007 – this past year has been my “decompression” year), I intend to also tutor in the public schools with beginning readers who are struggling, but I’m thinking that I can also give more time to Habitat. I try to do my volunteering in “blocks” of time rather than weekly because I get more sense of continuity, like last fall when I learned how to put in baseboard, then was able to carry on for several days using what I learned.
One of the nice things for me about being retired has been being able to spend more time with my dad who is in his 90’s and lives in Groveland in the Sierra foothills. I also hope to get home to Honolulu where I grew up one of these days. Plus I have enjoyed hiking in the East Bay Regional Parks. I’m still working on my goal of hiking in every unit of the system!
I have two cats, ShadowStar and Ilima (grey and orange) that make my house a home, both adopted from SPCA. I am an occasional fosterer for cats and kittens from SPCA, and one of my favorite hymns is “All Creatures Great and Small”.
