Early on a Saturday morning before the sun came up and the overachievers laced up their running shoes or mounted up on their road bikes, a group of 19 volunteers from Protiviti gathered to build a house for a deserving Houston family in partnership with Houston Habitat for Humanity. Armed with hammers, gloves, and hard hats, our motley crew started the day off hearing from families that will soon pay off a Habitat house or move in to one. It did not take long for our team to realize the impact our work would have on the future path for a local family.
Through a stroke of providence, Protiviti was paired to work on a house sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, we got along well with their build team. From 7:00 AM until 12:00 PM (with a Chick-fil-A break built-in of course), the team worked hard at the construction site. From installing hurricane clips to sheathing the outer walls with plywood, we worked diligently at our assigned tasks. While safety was the number one priority, you could not help but get a little nervous when the formerly demure consultant transformed into a trigger-happy nail-gun wielding machine. As with previous volunteer efforts, the Protiviti team impressed our Habitat build leaders with our speed and dedication.
When heavy rains cut off the last two hours of our planned build time, we were informed that we had already completed all of the build leaders’ goals for the day. While dodging the rain, our team got the chance to walk-through a nearly completed Habitat home. It was great to see the quality of homes that Habitat builds, and it was also a relief to know that the Habitat finishing crew could cover up what we lacked in carpentry and craftsmanship skills. As we walked back to our cars, the team was abuzz talking about how much we enjoyed the event. Protiviti’s contributions to Habitat did not end on Saturday though. Through RHI’s generous matching program Dollars for Doers, Protiviti Houston is targeting an additional matching gift for Houston Habitat of over $1,000 that will help Habitat to continue supporting Houston families. We hope to partner with Houston Habitat again in the future and continue giving back to our community.
-Jordan Hackney, Senior Technology Consultant
