Volunteer Appreciation Award 2024
Last year over 4,212 volunteers spent their time helping Habitat KC provide affordable housing solutions to the Kansas City Community. That equates to 47,055 hours dedicated to building a better Kansas City. Each one of these individuals contributed to providing affordable housing solutions to 838 individuals.
Watch the video to meet some of these amazing individuals.
At our annual Volunteer Appreciation Event we celebrated the generosity and impact of all of the amazing individuals and partners who make our work possible. We also recognized few who have gone above and beyond to advance our mission (check out the photos here). Learn more about our amazing award nominees and recipients below.
Emerging Volunteer Award
The Emerging Volunteer Award recognizes a volunteer that has been with the organization for less than four years. Throughout that time, this volunteer has shown leadership and growth in their skill set and always exudes positivity. This volunteer has an infectious passion for Habitat’s mission and shares that with others.
Kelly Foreman: 2024 Recipient
Kelly has volunteered almost 600 hours and has been a regular volunteer on our construction sites for over three years. Kelly steps up to serve as a crew lead for our affinity builds helping to guide volunteers and teaching them new skills. Kelly says he enjoys seeing the daily glowing smiles of volunteers that learn new power tool skills. Kelly also spends his time volunteering with the Habitat affiliate in Denver, Colorado, when visiting family in Denver – he is a true ambassador of our mission and shares his passion for Habitat with others. Kelly continues his education by attending our volunteer trainings and is excited to welcome a new homeowner into their new home at our home completion celebrations.
Jackson Murray: 2024 Nominee
Jackson is a dedicated volunteer at our Northland ReStore. Jackson has been volunteering with Habitat KC for three years. He first volunteered at our ReStore with the North Kansas City School District. We were thrilled to welcome Jackson as a regular volunteer over a year ago. He works twice a week and has completed over 225 volunteer hours. Jackson says he loves his work at the ReStore and his favorite part is working with the customers where he has gained valuable social skills.
Marie Pauley: 2024 Nominee
Marie has volunteered almost 300 hours over the last three years. She first joined us for our Women Build and has continued serving on the construction sites ever since. Marie attends our volunteer training events and is an ambassador for Habitat KC educating others in her community about our mission and programming. When asked what she is most proud of during her time as a volunteer, Marie says being part of a team, collaborating with others, supporting each other’s strengths, and working together to finish a home for a family. When asked, a site supervisor had this to say about Marie, “Marie is dedicated, hardworking, and a big personality on the jobsite, who never fails to keep us on our toes. She gives 100% of herself each day. She will always do anything asked of her with a smile on her face, and a little bit of sass (just the way we like it).”
Visionary Partnership Award
The Visionary Partnership Award honors a bold and innovative corporate or community partner who – through collaborative volunteer efforts – is a visionary in creating solutions to meet the affordable needs of Kansas City.
GEHA: 2024 Recipient
GEHA is focused on Health equity and military and Veteran support which is in perfect alignment with Habitat KC’s mission and initiatives. GEHA has been volunteering with Habitat KC since 2017. In 2022 GEHA made a deeper commitment to Habitat KC – making us one of the beneficiaries of their employee giving campaign. With over 100 GEHA employees who have engaged in volunteer opportunities at Habitat KC they ensure that each one of them understanding of the connection between affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization and health equity. GEHA has also partnered with Habitat KC by highlight our Veteran’s Build work at the during the Chiefs game last year. We are proud to also have Robin Darden, Director of Business Operations serve on our Board of Directors for the last two years. GEHA has donated over $40,000 to support our organization.
JE Dunn: 2024 Nominee
JE Dunn has a commitment to giving back and serving others that is deeply rooted in their companies’ culture. They have been a committed partner of Habitat KC since 2019 engaging over 50 employees just last year on our construction sites. JE Dunn has made a commitment to Habitat KC to continue investing in affordable housing with their yearly funding that has totaled over $38,000 in since 2019. Just recently Habitat KC began working with JE Dunn on the sustainability side of their business to ensure their excess building materials are being recycle and reinvested into the community through our ReStores instead of ending up in the landfill.
Lykins Neighborhood Association: 2024 Nominee
Habitat KC began working with the Gregg Lombardi and the Lykins neighborhood association in 2018 when they took on ambitious project to address the blight, safety and quality of life in their neighborhood. Through that work Lykins partnered with Habitat KC to build the first new construction home in the neighborhood in more than 20 years. The neighborhood association has continued to show up and advocate for Habitat KC in the neighborhood during 5 new construction builds. The neighborhood has also partnered with Habitat KC on a art installation in Lykins Park, a Rock the Block event. The Lykins Neighborhood Association also choose Habitat KC to build 11 more homes in their neighborhood.
Pritchard Legacy Award
The Prichard Legacy Award. This award recognizes and celebrates an individual who has shared their skills through volunteerism and positively impacted the community throughout their lifetime. This volunteer has been with the organization for many years, continues to show up and suit up every week, and will continue to build homes, community, and hope into the future.
Barrie Smith: 2024 Recipient
Barrie has volunteered over 10,000 hours with Habitat KC over the last 13 years. He has spent most of this time working on our construction and home repair projects but also helped with special projects in our ReStore. Each year Barrie serves as a crew lead on our Affinity Builds helping to teach and guide volunteers. Barrie shows up each and every week ready to lead and learn – he invests in continuous education through our volunteer training program. Barrie continually brings a positive presence to each project and our team looks forward to their weekly chats with him! He has made a positive impact on each neighborhood through his time and financial support of affordable housing.
Charles Baudoin: 2024 Nominee
Charles has been a volunteer with Habitat KC since he retired 11 years ago. He joins us each Wednesday with Church of the Res. and participates regularly in our volunteer trainings. He is always up for any projects or tasks needed on our construction sites and never complains. In fact, the site supervisor refers to him as “bright light” and willing to do anything with a smile on his face. In addition to his volunteer work Charles is a great ambassador for Habitat KC and invest financially in our mission.
Ralph Graham: 2024 Nominee
Ralph has been a volunteer with Habitat KC for 9 years and is a part of our Tuesday/Thursday crew from Village Pres. He has worked over 2,300 hours on construction projects and is known for being a great leader on our construction sites with Women Build and Rock the Block. When asked what he is most proud of he said assisting low-income families with affordable housing. Ralph is a true ambassador of our mission and a very capable leader that we are proud to work with each week.