‘ELE‘ELE — There is no such thing as a free house, said Shannon Showalter of the Habitat for Humanity’s Latin American office in Costa Rica, while here on Kaua‘i. George Inouye knows that. For the past several months, he and
‘ELE‘ELE — There is no such thing as a free house, said Shannon Showalter of the Habitat for Humanity’s Latin American office in Costa Rica, while here on Kaua‘i.
George Inouye knows that.
For the past several months, he and his son, Richard Paul Agor, have been toiling in the red dust and hot ‘Ele‘ele sun to get Agor’s home off the ground at the Habitat for Humanity’s ‘Ele‘ele site.
On Tuesday, Inouye was joined by a Global Village group headed by Kelly and Shannon Showalter and the symphony of hammers and a mitre saw filled the morning air.
“We should have the flooring in by Tuesday afternoon, and the walls will go up Wednesday, or Thursday,” said Bob McNamara, construction superintendant for Habitat for Humanity, on Monday.
The Showalters, recently married, are no strangers to building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
“This is our second build together since we got married,” Shannon said. “Two years ago, we were on Maui building homes, and we liked it so much we thought we’d come back.”
Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way as the couple had no trouble assembling a crew to help build homes at the Habitat’s ‘Ele‘ele site.
“We put the notice online at the Habitat’s Global Village site and had about 65 people apply,” Kelly said. “This group of a dozen people is who we selected to come and build.”
McNamara said the group arrived Monday afternoon and met at the Habitat’s Hanapepe facility for an orientation meeting before rolling up their sleeves for the project.
He said they’ll be here until next Tuesday, but their final day on the site will be this weekend. During that time, the group will open its day by helping at the Habitat Restore for at least an hour in the morning before adjourning to the housing site.
Among those in the group, Molly Zerener of Cheney, Kansas, got permission from her high school to join her dad Roger on this build.
“I’m on the yearbook staff at high school, and I get to photograph volleyball games,” the senior said.
She can now add home builder to her growing resume.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
