By JEN RANSOM

and AMY MENEREY-Frontiersman reporters

Sometimes it's a little hard to get things moving when you have to get up early on a Saturday morning, even if it's for a good cause.

"People are doing things on the weekend in Alaska, it makes [building] difficult," said Kevin Peterson, Habitat for Humanity Mat-Su Chapter board member and volunteer. "Sometimes I don't know why I'm still doing it, [but] at the moment it is a good thing and it's helping people out."

That seems to be the reason behind most Habitat volunteers worldwide. Sure, everyone has their own lives, families and businesses; heck, the Deshka has been known to call many when the fishing's hot and the weekend sun is shining. But when a Habitat volunteer shows up to build and the person whose home is being built is working right along with you, somehow, it just makes the weekend that much sweeter.

"Sometimes my boys don't want to get up and go," said Jennifer Wilson, who will purchase a Habitat home being built in the Williwaw subdivision through a no-interest loan. "But this is a hand up, not a handout."

Wilson is the recipient of the seventh Habitat home to be built in the Valley. She and Peterson, along with many other Valley volunteers, have spent their summer weekends building the three-bedroom home that will allow Wilson and her two grandsons to move out of what she calls a "glorified" cabin -- it has an upstairs, but no running water.

Working together and for others

To date, the Mat-Su HFH affiliate usually has been able to complete each home in a year to 18 months. There are currently seven Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Alaska and each one is in a different stage -- the Anchorage affiliate has been building for 11 years and has completed 32 homes; the Homer and Fairbanks affiliates are in their infancy.

Each habitat recipient -- or partner family -- must contribute 500 hours of "sweat equity" into the building of their home. When complete, the home is then purchased by the partner family through a no-interest loan.

On a 1998 visit to Mat-Su, Habitat for Humanity's founder Millard Fuller said the organization is based on what he calls "the Bible finance plan," saying he stole all his ideas from the Bible.

"It was complete plagiarism," he said.

Since much of the home-building cost is donated or brought in by fundraisers, a portion of the family's house payment goes back into the program, allowing other homes to be built. All Habitat affiliates are also asked to give 10 percent of their contributions to fund house-building work in other nations. In 2001, according to HFH International, U.S. affiliates gave more than $9 million to support overseas work.

"Even the poorest families can pay back the money. It's a wholesome deal, not a charity, but an opportunity and that's why it appeals to people," Fuller said.

Church land donation

to go to Habitat

Lida Mayo has also spent her summer weekends building her Habitat home, located in Willow -- the eighth HFH home to be built in Mat-Su. Mayo's home is different than previous Habitat for Humanity homes built in Mat-Su -- it is going to a single person.

"[A group of people from the Willow United] Methodist Church approached us. A person in their church had died and donated the lot. They wanted to [build a Habitat home] but didn't want to create a new chapter of Habitat," said Curt Menard, the vice president and public relations director for the Mat-Su Habitat for Humanity chapter. "We're doing all the paperwork, but they are raising the money and doing all the construction."

Normally, all three aspects of building a home -- paperwork, raising money and construction -- are handled by the Habitat chapter. The Willow church members and community taking on most of these responsibilities is allowing the two Habitat homes to be built simultaneously.

Steve Eldred is the pastor at the Willow United Methodist Church. He said the woman who donated the land to the church wanted it to go toward a Habitat home. Her donation of two lots, plus a third lot bought by the church, is where the beginnings of Mayo's new home sits.

"A lot of people live in dangerous housing, with no water, electricity or plumbing," Eldred said. "[We are doing this because] part of our mission is to help people."

The Willow home is 800 square feet, compared to the 900 to 1,200 square-foot homes that HFH Mat-Su has been building. Mayo was the most qualified applicant who applied for the home, and will hopefully be able to move into the home later this winter. Although the planning of the home is a bit different than normal, with the paperwork done in one part of the state and the building done in another, Menard said the partnership is going well.

"It's a great benefit for us, and it's a great benefit for the person who is getting the home," Menard said.

Skilled volunteers always needed

"The more the merrier," Peterson said when asked about the need for volunteers. "We could use more trade people that actually know [what they are doing]. There's a huge list of volunteers but most of them don't know the work; what we really need is someone who knows something, who can run crews. Someone who can guide a group of 10 people or so to work on the house."

Peterson owns Peterson Construction, and has been involved in some capacity on all of the Habitat homes built in the Valley, as construction foreman on most. He and his sons have been working on site at the Williwaw home, and he has been providing advice on the Willow home.

In years past, the Mat-Su chapter has also had the help of Global Village and Elderhostel volunteers, but none are scheduled to come up this year. Global Village is a HFH program. Volunteers go on short-term mission trips hosted by Habitat affiliates that include both volunteer work and the opportunity to tour local cultural and national treasures -- kind of like a "work vacation." Elderhostel works much in the same way. Through this volunteer organization senior citizens journey to various parts of the country and spend half their trip working on worthy causes and half traveling in the area in which they work. Both groups also contribute funds to the affiliate.

Since neither group is participating this year the local chapter is focusing on the community.

"We will try to organize local volunteers," said Bob Pickett, the vice chairman for the Mat-Su Habitat chapter. "We've got a good volunteer coordinator, but it's a responsibility the whole board has to take."

Pickett agrees with Peterson on the issue of needing skilled volunteers.

"One of the real key things we need is real skilled lead people. They need to know enough about construction so they can get lined out and work effectively with other volunteers without construction skills," Pickett said. "Kevin graciously donates his time, but we have to have skilled lead people to take some of the pressure off Kevin."

Even without the outside help of either Global Village or Elderhostel volunteers, both homes are being built as scheduled. Wilson's Williwaw home has had much support from local volunteers, and Mayo's Willow home has had the help of both local and out-of-state volunteers.

Willow United Methodist Church has been hosting other church work groups for years, Eldred said. Volunteers from across the country have helped build a new church and have done work on refinishing homes in Willow. An estimated 40 or 50 church-group-affiliate volunteers have helped with the home, along with 20 or so local volunteers.

Pickett hopes that churches throughout the borough will jump onto the Habitat bandwagon.

"We need to work on additional church participation. We have a strong core base, but we need to enhance volunteers locally," he said.