One
of Habitat for Humanity's first volunteers speaks at NE
By
Thomas Cooper, Staff Writer
Published 2/4/2010
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| One
of Habitat for Humanity’s first volunteers Clive Rainey
spoke to approximately 170 students, faculty and staff about
dedicating their lives to helping those in need on Tuesday,
January 19 in Hines Hall Auditorium. |
One
of Habitat for Humanity’s first volunteers Clive Rainey spoke
to approximately 170 students, faculty and staff about dedicating
their lives to helping those in need on Tuesday, January 19 in Hines
Hall Auditorium.
Rainey’s speech was part of Northeast’s Cultural Arts
Committee’s “The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges,
and Consequences” and part of the Iota Zeta chapter of the
Phi Theta Kappa honor society’s honors topic for the spring
semester.
Rainey has worked with Habitat for Humanity for 33 years and was
the one who brought “sweat equity”, the idea that the
future homeowners themselves should help in building their homes
to be.
Rainey, a well-spoken man, talked of habitat’s founder Millard
Fuller.
Fuller, a once wealthy man, and his wife had everything one could
wish for, but found themselves deeply unhappy with their material
wealth and after some discussion, chose to give away every last
cent of their wealth and dedicate their lives to aiding others in
having homes and futures thus founding Habitat for Humanity.
In his efforts throughout the world, Rainey often showed those he
was helping the story of “The Three Little Pigs.”
While it seemed silly to some, the symbolism was quite easy to understand.
Homes are the center of people’s estate, and a well built
home helps not just the owners, but also the economy as a whole.
With helpful spending, come lower crime rates, better overall health
and better education.
One of the most important figures Rainey speaks of is the big bad
wolf, but rather than huffing and puffing, the big bad wolf most
often appears in a suit and tie, offering refinance and other lending
schemes, tricking the little pigs – homeowners -- into building
their straw and stick houses on foundations of unsecure debt and
trapping them in credit addiction until foreclosure is imminent.
From this mess arise increased crime rates and lowered home values.
Habitat for Humanity protects the homeowners, educating them on
the dangers this wolf poses and making them do-it-yourselfers as
they help build their own new houses.
The little pigs build their brick house on a foundation of responsibility
and knowledge that the wolf will find much harder to blow down.
Rainey said that he often told homeowners he aided to keep the hammers
they used by their doors, so that when creditors knocked on the
door, they could pick up that hammer and tell them “I beat
poverty with this and I can beat you with it too.”
Rainey recalled Fuller’s funeral last year to the crowd, telling
them about the founder’s wishes.
Fuller died in February 2009, and by his own wishes, he was buried
in a simple pine box, not wishing even in death to spend a single
dime on himself.
At his memorial service, a man spoke of how Habitat helped him in
gaining a home in his youth and now he was a Harvard-educated physician
-- the example he learned inspiring him to also dedicate his life
to helping others who can’t afford it.
For many this may be last time any of them ever see Rainey, after
33 years he will retire and spend his days in Guatemala helping
poor children receive educations – dedicating his life to
the cause by selling off all his possessions and taking only three
suitcases with him.
Rainey ended his lecture with a challenge to the listeners, “Look
beyond yourself and take your wealth seriously, looking to the health
of your society.”
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