Posted: 05/13/2011
Author:
Mike Elswick melswick@news-journal.com
Laura Whistine traded in her computer and number-crunching duties Thursday to pick up a hammer, drive nails, move lumber and help build a house for Habitat for Humanity.
The certified public accountant is one of about 50 employees of Kilgore-based Martin Resource Management who have gotten out of their offices in recent days for home construction work. The house they are helping build at 514 Roosevelt St. in South Longview will become a home in a few weeks.
Whistine said the hours of sweating and helping others has been rewarding.
“I just feel that while we’re here on earth we need to live for more than ourselves,” she said during a short break in construction activities. Whistine said that philosophy is shared by many of her co-workers and the management at Martin Resource.
Melanie Mathews, the company’s vice president of human resources, said about a third of the company’s headquarters staff in Kilgore signed up to work.
Ruben Martin, chairman and CEO of the Martin companies, said the idea came from the firm’s workers.
“This was a total employee-led initiative,” he said. Employees came up with the idea, approached management and got support from Martin and other executives.
“East Texas has been good to us,” Martin said. “We know these kind of projects are good for Gregg County and its people, and we’re glad to help out.”
Mathews said Martin did much more than allow the workers time off for their Habitat building efforts.
“They’re paying us our full salaries,” she said. “We think that’s pretty amazing in this day and time.”
Mathews said the work on the Habitat home was a change of pace from the normal daily routine for the company’s workers.
“We’re all office workers, from sales, human resources, accounting and IT (information technology) — there’s no one here that normally does physical labor — except maybe at home,” Mathews said.
Nancy Tillison said the group’s construction on Longview Habitat’s 76th house was personal.
“Habitat’s 75th house, built next door, was dedicated to my brother-in-law, John Fitzpatrick,” Tillison said. “He was very dedicated to Habitat before he died.”
Tillison said the cut on her leg from her part in the construction duties was a small price to pay for the bigger project.
Nico Fourie, Longview Habitat’s on-site construction manager, said efforts such as those of the Martin crew are what keeps Habitat going.
“It’s all about the volunteers,” he said. “I just give them some direction, let them go to work and hope for the best.”
Fourie said while the work is manual labor, it is not difficult or highly skilled.
“It’s not difficult; they just have to be accurate,” he said. “One good thing about it, if they make a mistake, it can be corrected and done over.”
Fourie said it will probably be another eight weeks before the house is occupied.
During that time, licensed workers such as plumbers and electricians will help make it habitable while the family that will eventually live in the home puts its required 350 hours of labor on the project that Habitat for Humanity requires
