February 2004

In February 2004, three Northern California Chapter members of the National Guild of Professional Paperhangers got together to complete a small community project for the Peninsula Habitat for Humanity office in Redwood City, CA. Peninsula Habitat houses are built by volunteers and partner families. They work with low income families to build decent affordable homes. These families must have a strong desire to be homeowners and support the mission of Peninsula Habitat which is: to build quality, affordable ownership housing through volunteer efforts in long-term partnership with qualified families. Each of the families in the program is required to complete 500 hours of volunteer labor before they purchase and occupy the house. Habitat works in partnership with governments, individuals, faith communities, foundations, corporations and civic groups, all which assist them by contributing time and funds, and helps them acquire building sites.

The project began last Fall, when Northern Calif. Chapter Associate Member Larry Magas with Zinsser products, donated the primer and adhesive for the project. We were able to utilize the new Zinsser Plus System since we were installing a 15 oz. commercial vinyl in a warm neutral tone. Step 1, (the primer) was applied by Habitat volunteers and allowed to cure. We used Step 2 (the adhesive) to install the goods on both sides of a 9 ft. wall located at the main entrance to the building. The Northern California Guild members who volunteered were: John Krause of Walnut Creek, Steve Shlee of Santa Clara and Lauretta Jenkins from the Santa Cruz area.

Peninsula Habitat's Administrative Director, Jacquey Carey generously provided us with a delicious lunch of deli sandwiches and surprised us when she presented with us some great Habitat tee shirts for our efforts.

Despite the rain storm that hit the entire Bay Area that day, we overcame snarled traffic, fallen trees, downed power lines, and even mud slides to get this project taken care of. I never knew how much paperhangers had in common with the US Postal Service till now! It was my pleasure to work alongside our two newest chapter members, John and Steve. Both worked diligently without complaint (except for the weather conditions) and the installation looked great! We were privileged to have Larry Magas from Zinsser drop by to check on the project and take some photos. We all enjoyed helping out Peninsula Habitat and look forward to our next chapter charity project.