Tag Archive for: National Volunteer Appreciation Week
Volunteer Spotlight: Robin Smith
Robin found himself on a Habitat jobsite the year after he retired. Like so many other core volunteers, he found a new social group at Habitat. He is part of the Thursday core crew, largely because that’s the day of the week that he first volunteered.
Volunteer Spotlight: Barb Cooper
Seeing my friends here is the best. You’re all like my second family. And knowing I can keep things organized, alphabetized, so people know exactly where stuff is supposed to go. I love what I do here.
Celebrating our volunteers
Volunteerism with Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity experienced a spike in 2025 on the heels of Hurricane Helene. A significant increase in out-of-town groups contributed, as did an increase in the number of local Home Repair core volunteers committing to helping repair homes every week. Nearly 2,700 individual volunteers collectively contributed more than 84,000 hours of service. The value of that donated time? According to Independent Sector, which values volunteer time at $34.79/hour, that level of service represents nearly $3M!
Core volunteers (weekly or bi-weekly) are foundational to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Their commitment to service has helped thousands of adults and children secure safe, stable and affordable homes, and enabled hundreds of aging adults to remain in their homes. Throughout National Volunteer Appreciation Week, staff will be visiting all volunteer sites, delivering special treats and appreciations to thank volunteers for their service.
“At Habitat, our work builds and rebuilds homes—but it also builds and rebuilds community and hope. Our volunteers open doors to stability for a family, to connection between neighbors, and to a deeper sense of purpose for those who serve. Together, we can build something bigger than any of us could do alone,” shared Andy Barnett, CEO of Asheville Habitat.
Eleven core volunteers reached noteworthy service milestones:
- Allen Laws and Jan Wright celebrated 35 years of service with the Asheville ReStore!
- Bill Winkler and Jerry Ray celebrated their 20th anniversary with Asheville Habitat, both serving for two decades with construction services.
- Volunteers celebrating 15 years of service with new home construction are Cecil Greck, Ralph Johnson, Pete Steurer, Bernie Koesters, and Bill Reid. ReStore volunteers Sheila Ray and Anne Tansey hit the 15-year milestone mark, too.
- Many other volunteers are recognized for reaching 5 and 10-year milestones.
In addition to celebrating years of service, Asheville Habitat also recognizes annual hours of service. Many volunteers individually contribute hundreds and hundreds of hours each year. In 2025, these volunteers earned the Top 5 Hours:
- John Harvin, ReStore – 826 hours
- Tim Kruse, ReStore – 808 hours
- Ian Mackey, Construction (new home) – 685 hours
- Coal Semkowich, Construction (new home and repair) – 610 hours
- Jesse Gingrich, ReStore – 605 hours
What keeps them coming back, week after week and year after year? Overwhelmingly, it is a desire to support Habitat’s mission, enjoying camaraderie with fellow volunteers, and feeling a sense of meaning and fulfilment.
Construction Services core volunteer, Robin Smith offered, “You retire from a job, you don’t retire from the need for meaning, purpose, and joy. You find that at Habitat.”
Some fun facts about Asheville Habitat’s volunteer program:
- Asheville Habitat host volunteers of all ages, from students age 16 (minimum) to adults age 55+ staying active and engaged in their community, and everyone in between.
- Habitat for Humanity International’s Women Build program empowers women to build – and advocate for – affordable housing in their communities. Since 1994, Asheville Habitat’s Women Build program has raised more than $1 million and built 21 homes!
- Asheville Habitat hosts college teams from around the country every March as part of Collegiate Challenge, an alternative Spring Break program.
- Core volunteers and staff from the AVL and WVL ReStores together diverted 2,922 tons of usable material from landfills in 2025.
- Every other year, student volunteers (age 16+) from local public and private high schools help build (and raise the sponsorship funds for) the Student Build House.
- Volunteer opportunities are available across the organization Monday through Saturday. Individuals and groups welcome! Visit ashevillehabitat.org/volunteer to learn more.
- STAY TUNED! Read a new blog post each day this week, spotlighting an individual or team of volunteers.
Volunteer Spotlight: Evan Rosenberg
Evan feels one can sit around and complain, or get involved, volunteer, and do things that make you feel good. His positivity radiates as he talks about his life, his family, and his interests.
Meet office volunteers Aaron Finkel and Steven Casciato
Affectionately dubbed “The Boys,” Aaron Finkel and Steven Casciato are our exceedingly dedicated volunteers tasked with conquering piles of waivers and sign-in sheets – a task vital to the efficient operation of our large volunteer program.
Bill Kantonen: Celebrating 25 Years of Service
Having a conversation with Bill Kantonen about the last 25 years of volunteering to build houses with Asheville Habitat is a little like eating at a 5 star restaurant. With a 25-year databank of stories, he has to be selective about what he shares, but what he served up was a rich and well-seasoned selection.
Bill Kantonen on the jobsite
A longstanding dedication to honor his commitments, is truly a thread that runs all through Bill’s life, beginning long before he hammered his first nail with Asheville Habitat. Bill worked with the YMCA for approximately 40 years, serving across the nation, finally ending up in Asheville to serve the last 12 years as Executive Director of the Asheville YMCA. A few years before signing on with the YMCA, he married his wife Jennifer with whom he spent a happily married life for the next 60 years. When Bill started his 25 year span of volunteering with Asheville Habitat he was 36 years in to marriage and 40 years into a career with a single organization.
At 40 years, however, Bill decided to retire from the YMCA in June of 1996. And, approximately one month later, in August of 96’, Bill started volunteering on jobsites every Friday morning- and would continue building houses with Asheville Habitat every week for the next 25 years. (That adds up to over 1,000 days on the jobsite, or work on over 300 houses as a volunteer!) Bill started while Asheville Habitat was building their third neighborhood, located in Wilson Creek. Since then, Bill has built in every single Habitat neighborhood in the Asheville area.
He recalls attending the 200th home celebration in which Habitat’s founder, Millard Fuller, was the guest speaker and commented on the quality of the volunteers’ work. He said “In observing the volunteers, I believe they have reasoned, if 2 nails are good, then 10 are even better. I don’t worry about a hurricane or tornado passing through, but if someone walks by with a really large magnet, I might get nervous.” And the volunteers aren’t the only ones going the extra mile on Habitat jobsites. Bill has worked with the last three Asheville Habitat Construction Supervisors, and he says “They are all so professional. Habitat certainly builds houses to be proud of. If you don’t do it right, you do it over!”
But ultimately, Bill says, “If I can take anything away from the past 25 years, it’s the people. The volunteers, the supervisors who made sure you do it right or do it over, the folks who brought donuts for the coffee breaks…I will always remember the people.”
Bill recalls all the college students who come each year for Collegiate Challenge and alternative spring breaks. He said, “They always ask me why I do
Bill Kantonen in Maui
this. Why do I volunteer every Friday, instead of playing golf or something like that? I tell them, when you leave at the end of the day after working on a Habitat house, you can look back and say, hey, I did that!”
Bill began volunteering with Asheville Habitat with a group of volunteers from his church, First Presbyterian of Asheville. He is one of the last of the original group to still be volunteering. But at 85, he sees no reason to stop now. He is patiently waiting until he can return after a year of limited volunteer service, and begin working on the biggest neighborhood to date, New Heights.
His incredible 25 years of service with Asheville Habitat isn’t the only thing that makes Bill stand out. Perhaps it was the fact that he was in Maui with his daughters during our conversation, but even over the phone, Bill exudes the values of his generation. He is lighthearted, even when sharing about difficult times, he is incredibly sharp- offering meaningful memories from all aspects of his volunteer service, and he is impeccably faithful in honoring his commitments. It has truly been an honor to have Bill as part of the Asheville Habitat family for all these years.
Thank you, Bill, for your 25 years of service! You are an inspiration to our whole team!
Beth Robrecht: A Multi-Disciplinary Volunteer
It all started at a dinner party in the mid-1980s where Beth Robrecht was seated next to a delightful conversationalist by the name of Millard Fuller, who also happened to be the co-founder of the world-wide organization now known as Habitat for Humanity International. Mr. Fuller was no doubt an excellent ambassador for Habitat’s volunteer program, and as Beth listened to the sincere and credible commendations, she knew there would come a day when the demands of her law practice would ease, and she would have time to offer to volunteer service. She tucked the information away, and kept the idea of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in the back of her mind for the next 15 years, until her moment arrived
Beth at the Asheville ReStore, pre renovation
After getting married and moving to Asheville in the early 2000’s, Beth finally parted ways with her law practice and began to settle in to being a full time wife. As her schedule opened up, she remembers seeing a TV commercial for Asheville Habitat which prompted her to recall Mr. Fuller’s recommendation of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity so many years before. Soon after, she made her way downtown to what was then known as the Habitat Home Store, a small store front full of gently used donated items, located at 9 Biltmore Avenue.
Perhaps the beginning of Beth’s volunteer service with Asheville Habitat was foretelling of what would come. She started off doing a little bit of everything at the WNC Home Store, from sweeping floors, to stocking shelves, to assisting customers. She has since served Asheville Habitat in countless ways outside of the ReStore over the past 18 years. Soon after starting at the Home Store, then Executive Director, Lew Kraus, quickly spotted her administrative and legal savvy and invited her to sit on the Board of Directors. She has since served several terms on the AAHH board, and has actually lost count of the number of committees she has either chaired or sat on, although she lists the Family Selection Committee and, most recently, the ReStore Committee as two she has chaired.
Beth is the perfect example of the type of volunteer who makes up the backbone of this organization. Although originally a ReStore volunteer, her
Beth (second from right) with friends
professional expertise made her a great candidate to serve in other capacities within the organization- and she’s always ready and willing to serve when asked. No matter in what capacity she serves administratively, she hasn’t stopped volunteering weekly at the Asheville ReStore. Before Covid, Beth and five friends volunteered together weekly, taking the already fun and exciting ReStore volunteer adventure to a whole new level! Covid has, of course, changed things a bit, and Beth now participates in the Monday morning volunteer work shifts that happen while the ReStore is closed to the public.
After 18 years, she still delights in the ReStore volunteer experience. “I love the thrill of the hunt! You just never know what you’re going to find, it’s delightful! And, the other thing that I love about the Asheville ReStore is that there’s a synchronicity that happens, I can’t explain it, but it happens over and over again. I’ll see some obscure item donated to the ReStore that I’ve never seen in my whole life, and the next thing I know there is a customer at the register buying it, saying they’ve been looking for this exact thing for months! It’s so fun!!” Recently Beth found a beautiful set of China by the same maker as her mother’s wedding china, and was able to give her niece an extravagant gift at a fraction of the original cost. Beth is a ReStore devotee at heart, and we are so, so grateful she is!
The Man Behind the Hardware
During a year when ReStore truck crews were not been able to enter homes to remove large furniture items or appliances, it’s not a surprise that Construction and Building Materials became the top selling merchandise category at the Asheville Area ReStores. Hardware items- tools, fixtures, fasteners and every item in between, make up a huge part of the Building Materials section. But while ReStore staff have been spread thin with far fewer volunteers able to serve than usual, John Harvin has been the Man Behind the Hardware this past year, keeping our store’s shelves full of every hardware item that gets donated.
John Harvin lived in Germany for 30 years, managing supplies for a military school, before retiring in Asheville in 2014. He knew he wanted to volunteer during retirement, and had heard of Habitat for Humanity’s work around the world. After reaching out to the ReStore volunteer coordinator, Carrie Burgin in 2015, she quickly lined up a time for John to come tour Asheville ReStore operations.
John Harvin
While touring the Restore with Carrie, John noticed an area piled high with boxes full of every manner of hardware items. Carrie explained the hardware processing area often became backed up as staff weren’t able to devote enough time to the tedious job of sorting through thousands of fasteners and fixtures, as well as identifying and pricing hand tools of all types and ages. Truly, from large, vintage table saws, routers, and joiners to brand new power tools, to circa 1930s hammers and wrenches, the Asheville ReStores receive a remarkable array and volume of donated hardware items. And, beginning in 2015 thanks to John joining the ReStore volunteer team, hardware boxes no longer pile up in the processing area, but rather get sorted and priced and hit the sales floor right away!
Of course, as with everything else, Covid has complicated the process just a bit. The little time staff were able to devote to hardware before Covid quickly diminished as volunteers were no longer able to serve at the ReStore during open store hours. Instead of his usual 3-4 days a week, split between the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores, John began volunteering 5 days a week in order to try and keep up with the influx of hardware merchandise. John currently volunteers several hours each day, Monday–Friday, and is just managing to keep the boxes from stacking too high.
John’s almost single-handed effort to process donated hardware has paid off in a huge way for the ReStores. Many customers shop at the Restores almost exclusively for the purpose of finding hardware items for their building jobs or home improvements. In fact, over the past year, with home improvements at an all-time high, the Asheville and Weaverville ReStores sold a combined $219,352 in hardware items alone! This was largely due to the time, effort, and commitment of John Harvin. He realized quickly that items sell much better once they’ve been cleaned up, and has gone above and beyond to take the time to package bulk items and clean up older hand tools in order to present them in a way that highlights their worth. In addition, he diligently researches items he’s not familiar with, especially larger vintage tools, in order to accurately price them according to their value.
John Harvin With A Million Dollar Bill
As with many volunteers, after five years of service John has caught the ReStore treasure hunting bug! He pulled a 1 Million dollar bill out of his pocket that he found tucked in a donated tool box right before sitting down for this interview, “It’s always interesting, especially when a bunch of boxes come in from the same person- you just never know what you’re going to find!” But when asked what he enjoys the most about volunteering with the ReStores, John doesn’t hesitate in his answer, “It’s just being around people. The staff at both Stores are great, they’re super friendly and interesting to talk to, and the same goes with other retirees. Having people my age with similar interests to talk to about their life, that’s definitely the best part. And of course knowing that what I do may help a family get into their own house, that’s the biggest reward.”
As with everything at the ReStore, the reward is threefold. Donors dropping off hardware items save their used items from ending up in the landfill and shoppers get a great price on new and vintage finds, all while funding Asheville Habitat’s new building and home repair programs.
Thank you John, for your amazing contribution over the past 5 years!
A Letter To Our Volunteers
To close out National Volunteer Appreciation Week, Asheville Habitat Executive Director Andy Barnett has a message for our volunteers.
RESTORE – ASHEVILLE
RESTORE – WEAVERVILLE
61 Weaver Blvd. Weaverville, NC 28787
828-484-9432
Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
GET DIRECTIONS
