SHH Hosts a Talented Group of Volunteers from the Building Goodness Foundation (BGF)

From December 5th-12th, SHH hosted several skilled volunteers from the Building Goodness Foundation, SHH's partner organization for construction of Villa Soleada. The volunteers helped to dig trenches and lay pipe for the potable water system at Villa Soleada, install meters and pressure valves, and consult on a donated water tank.

The group managed to dig main lines, connect houses to lines, and plumb "pilas" on one entire side of our project (24 homes!). In fact, the trip was so much of a success that Jack Horn and Clay Clark decided to stay on an extra week in order to help oversee our volunteers from Winter Trip I in the installation of water meters. A very, very big thank you goes out to BGF.

Members of the trip included:

Martin Quarles: Project Manager for Alexander Nicholson Construction (Charlottesville, VA) for many years. Martin has traveled two times previously to Honduras with BGF, three previous BGF trips to Haiti as well as El Salvador.

Jack Horn: President of Martin Horn Construction, BGF Board member, and BGF Project Manager for a 6,000 sq ft Pearlington Recovery Center. Jack leads Martin Horn, Inc. with his two brothers. Jack is one of Central Virginia's most respected commercial contractors.

Greg Parrish: Project Manager at Martin Horn. Greg spent time in the US Navy.

Anne Pray: Landscape Architect at Nelson Byrd Woltz. Anne joined Nelson Byrd Woltz in June 2006 following graduation from the University of Virginia with a Master of Landscape Architecture degree. She served as a project manager for The Brown Companies on the landscape phase of the ‘Houses at Sagaponac’ project, an innovative 65-acre housing development in the Hamptons that challenges conventional wisdom about the design and construction of residential housing. Since joining NBW, Anne has worked on several large residential projects in Virginia.

Clay Clark: Skilled carpenter at Martin Horn. Clay has participated in several BGF projects in Charlottesville and in Pearlington, MS, but this is his first international project with BGF.

Kelly Eplee: Kelly serves as the new BGF Executive Director following a long career in the non-profit world. He has lived in several parts of Latin America while working as a development volunteer. He has worked with the AIDS Services Group, Habitat for Humanity, and Madison House (UVA volunteering clearing house), among many others.