On August 21, after the last piece of sod was laid down, I attended the dedication for the house on Maryland Street that my family had worked on with Habitat for Humanity Detroit. As I listened to the poem being read by the new home owner's daughter, I looked around the newly built home. I began to reflect on how I became involved in the best movement going on in Detroit.

It was one year ago today that Susan and I took our annual post Katrina trip to New Orleans to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity NOLA, building new homes for hurricane victims. Before I left I spoke with my cousin Dan Mulhern about his daughter who was in New Orleans also volunteering at the city schools. Our bunk house was just down the street from her apartment, and I was able to connect with her over dinner. Upon my return I gave Dan a full report on the awesome work his middle child was doing. We both confirmed how a love of a place can grow when you give something of yourself to it. I always liked New Orleans, but now I am connected in a way that has become part of me.  

Time magazine came out with the disparaging article on life in Detroit that month. Dan and I agreed that Detroit was hit with a Katrina of another force. This was especially sad for us because we had many childhood memories of visiting our grandparents in Detroit, where they had raised their seven children including Dan's mom and my mom. Our city is in need of a helping hand as much as a hurricane ravaged city. Brad Pitt and Angelina were not coming to start the movement any time soon. We needed a call to action, a way to get our family, and other families to come and set an example to the next generation, and to the next door neighbors, that we all have something we can do to give back to our city in Michigan. We knew it would be a task to round up over fifty families all with families of their own. I had the time and the desire to do this special project. When Dan asked if I would lead the family project, I could only answer,"I'm just the girl to do that!".

Once I was introduced to the dedicated staff at Habitat for Humanity Detroit, it wasn't long before I was on speed dial terms with Sandra Cobb, the volunteer coordinator. "Coordinate" is exactly what she did with our family, every step of the way. She made my job simple, I'm sure I made her life a little crazy. We decided to have a family reunion around funding and building a home during a two week Blitz Build. Setting the goal starts everything in motion. You can do it any way you like...perhaps you want to go for the entire two weeks of working the build, or just a Saturday and having a family reunion on Sunday. Maybe you want to do some fund raising to get involved with a project. We chose to make a lofty goal being that it was our cousin Dan and his wife, Governor Granholm's, final months in office. We wanted it to be something we all could be proud of.

We had a record number of volunteers for our Family Blitz Build. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids came from as far as California to New Jersey. You can really get to know someone that you haven't seen in fifteen years, when your elbow to elbow pounding a hammer for five days.

Every minute of the work was challenging, inspiring and fun. We loved it! The very first evening I started to get calls from family members thanking me for giving them this awesome opportunity to do something for the greater good of our city of Detroit. There are no words to express the amount of joy we felt at completing our build, and expanding our family to include our new friends at Habitat for Humanity Detroit.

I am happy to help anyone who is interested in volunteering for Habitat Detroit. Contact: christine.bitonti@yahoo.com