“Windy City Rehab” star Alison Victoria not only helped kick off Habitat for Humanity’s annual Women Build campaign for the Northern Fox Valley group this week, she’ll be back this summer to film work on their Elgin build site for her HGTV show.
Victoria is the national spokesperson for Women Build, the Habitat program that invites women to learn how to build Habitat homes under the guidance of construction professionals.
The local connection was made when Victoria, a house-flipping expert, visited the Fox Valley Habitat Restore in Elgin and employees suggested she come to Thursday’s launch party, said Susan Fritz, the local nonprofit’s director of development.
“She readily agreed. She has been out on a build for us, and she is very committed to Habitat,” Fritz said.
Victoria is so dedicated to Women Build that she’s made a video promoting it, encouraging women to help each other and overcome the barriers to homeownership, which can be transformative for them and their families.
A film crew accompanied Victoria while she participated in the kickoff for the effort, which this year has a record number of women volunteering to spend a day working on a house at 560 St. John St. in Elgin.
Beyond doing labor at the build site, the volunteers also form teams to raise donations that will go toward affordable housing in which the future owners must also contribute hours of labor. They’ve raised 57% of this year’s goal of $75,000 so far, Fritz said.
This year there are 10 teams of volunteers, some will work at sites in Carpentersville and Crystal Lake, Fritz said.
The women are asked to “devote one day to help families build strength, stability and independence through housing,” she said. “The event is meant to spotlight the homeownership challenges faced by many women in need across the country.”
It’s one of the reasons Kathy Festen, of Baird and Warner in Algonquin, has taking part for a second year with her office’s team, “Sisterhood Strong.”
“It was just so rewarding being out there with the homeowner. I feel I’m making a difference in people’s lives and for women,” Festen said.
Last year she learned how to lay a subfloor, “which was quite intimidating on the hottest day of the year,” she said, but also rewarding “to be able to see I had just a small part in helping this woman and her family. It’s their home, it’s their sanctuary.”
It also teaches women “new tasks for the day. It’s empowering to learn a new skill,” Fritz said.
Site supervisor Tom Rentner is one of the people who serves as a teacher.
The first thing volunteers learn is about safety measures, Rentner said. The rest of the day may be spent doing whatever needs to be done, which could include using electric hand tools, but “we never make people do something they are not comfortable with,” he said.
In his experience, Women Build volunteers are easier to teach than men, Rentner said. “Women are better at following instructions because they are not weekend warriors,” he said.
While safety is rule one, Rentner wants the women to have fun and not stress. “As long as we have more done at the end of the day then when we start, it’s good enough,” he said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
