MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Team Moody is starting the New Year off by partnering with Habitat for Humanity to build a home for a family in need during January, in Valdosta, Ga.
Moody’s private organizations will be uniting squadrons, units, flights and groups to gather volunteers to build the home and leave their footprint by putting their organization’s coins in or on the home as a piece of memorabilia.
Typically, Habitat for Humanity would already have the frame of the house prebuilt for volunteers to place and continue from there. However, Moody volunteers plan to build the frames themselves and start putting them in place on Jan. 14, and their goal is to get the roof on the home by Jan. 27, to prevent any interior weather damage.
“Right now we have between 80 and 90 volunteers for the fourteenth,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Forehand, 23d Logistics Readiness Squadron NCO in charge of fuels laboratory. “We’ve had a ton of support and this is Moody getting directly involved with the community and affecting families. Some people can’t afford homes and this is one of the great ways to show Moody’s there and we can help.”
One way individual squadrons and groups from Moody are assisting is by providing volunteers to work specific weekends to ensure Airmen are there to help. The 824th Base Defense Squadron’s Alpha Flight is stepping up and providing volunteers for Jan. 25-27, something they don’t get to do much of.
“With our high operations tempo we are hardly able to volunteer for things like this,” said Staff Sgt. Justin Amburgey, 824th BDS fireteam leader. “I felt like it would be a great opportunity for our flight to represent the 824th in giving back to this community.”
With the outpouring of support and need for more volunteer opportunities, Forehand and Staff Sgt. Trevor Loken, 23d Civil Engineer Squadron unit deployment manager, are looking to make home-building a Moody tradition.
“In the future, we hope to do this as an annual project,” said Loken. “It’s awesome because [even] people who don’t know how to swing a hammer or don’t work with structural buildings can help, because there will be guidance there.
“It gives them the opportunity to step outside their comfort zone,” Loken added. “This will open up more doors for us to do other volunteer projects in the local community.”
Team Moody is still looking for volunteers for Jan. 17-19. Anyone interested can contact Forehand at 229-257-1924.