My name is Don Brown and I am Habitat!

“A personal goal of mine is to give back to the community. My small part in house construction is a way to help Habitat achieve their bigger goal of providing affordable homeownership.“

– Don Brown graduated from Cornerstone College in 2015

Q. What career or profession were you involved in before joining Habitat as a Cornerstone Leader on our construction sites?

A. I was an electrical engineer working at Motorola. I specialized in radio amplifier design, the type used in cellular base stations. I worked for Motorola my entire professional career, 38 years. 

Q. What initially drew you to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and how did you first get involved with Trinity Habitat for Humanity?

A.  I have enjoyed watching construction since I was a kid. I had volunteered for Habitat a couple of times many years ago and had visited Sundance one year during a build and move event. After I retired, I looked for volunteer opportunities and Habitat looked like a good fit.

I first volunteered in 2014, just prior to the Carter build so I often worked on Carter prebuild activities. I missed the Carter build, as I was out of town that week. After Carter, I continued to volunteer and Bradbury began to encourage me to be more involved. I attended Cornerstone College in the spring of 2015 and started my first house as a PM in July. 

Q. How have the skills or experiences from your previous career or profession translated into your work on the Habitat for Humanity construction site?

A. My profession was unrelated to construction. However, my interests in construction came from my childhood. I enjoy watching construction projects and seeing how people build things. My father’s hobby was woodworking, as is mine now. I have been an active DIYer all my life. As a DIYer I have done almost all the task on finishing out a home from the slab up. 

Q. What is a memorable experience or project from your time with Trinity Habitat for Humanity that reaffirmed your passion for the work?

A.) On the construction side, I’ve learned a lot from my peers and from volunteers on how to build a better house.

However, the memorable experiences are mostly about the people, both Cornerstone and the volunteers. It is so rewarding to teach a volunteer a new skill.

When you see the smile on their face after they cut their first board on the miter saw, or when they just finished siding an entire wall of the house you know that memory will remain with them.

We had a group of private high school students on truss day and we taught them to load trusses on the house – and they loved it! After the first one was up, they loaded them faster than we could install them. 

Q. What aspects of Habitat for Humanity’s mission stand out to you?

A.   Many volunteer organizations provide immediate care or resources to their recipients, like food, or clothing, or daycare… Habitat provides a long-term life-altering service to its recipients.

Not only do our parter families have their own permanent home, but we also change their long-term financial outlook, typically starting with a lower monthly housing cost and looking forward to a more stable and predictable housing portion of their budget. Habitat changes their lives forever.

A personal goal of mine is to give back to the community. My small part in house construction is a way to help Habitat achieve their bigger goal of providing affordable homeownership.