'Why not give back?'

Habitat Bicycle Challenge riders roll into Columbia Falls to help make home ownership a dream come true for Flathead families

The metallic thwack! of hammers smacking nails solidly into lumber echoes through the wooded glade at the foot of a bluff in Columbia Falls.

Twenty-six college students from across the nation - who left Yale University in New Haven, Conn., on May 27 to wheel their way to Seattle by July 27 in the Habitat Bicycle Challenge - climb ladders to attach roof sheeting and fascia to trusses erected last Sunday by a group from Columbia Bible Baptist Church.

Above the din, project supervisor Skip Beardsley hollers loud enough to get everyone's attention for Ladders 101: Right foot on the toe board. Left foot parallel to the roof line. Right foot on the first rung below the roof, then two-handed downward progress until you hit the ground.

One by one, they follow his instructions as they break for a sack lunch, provided by Flathead Valley Habitat for Humanity volunteer coordinator Jackie Neumiller.

Meanwhile, Kristi McKessick and her four children have spent the morning on the Habitat work site. Together with her husband, Kip, the family has put in nearly 1,000 hours of sweat equity to help build their sorely needed home.

In a few months, the McKessicks will start making the interest-free payments on their 1,153 square feet of pure, unadulterated blessing at the north end of Fourth Avenue East.

The significance of all these helping hands is not lost on McKessick.

"The Lord's blessed us and we were able to bless someone else," she said, telling how they could share their former home with another family. "We want something to be able to raise our kids and feel safe … We're just so blessed."

No longer will she worry about mold, high electricity bills, her children being cold in the winter. And she has a whole new set of construction skills.

"Skip is so tenderhearted. He's down here every day, no matter if nobody else is here. He truly loves people," she said, recalling his patient instruction.

"I said I couldn't, and he said, 'Yes, you can.' He's so encouraging," she said. "I never thought this was possible."

Simultaneously, Dwayne and Stacey Robinson's 1,050-square-foot home is going up next door.

Foundations for the third and fourth homes should be poured this fall immediately to the west and north. Two final homes eventually will face McKessicks' and Robinsons' from across the cul-de-sac.

It's the Flathead Valley Habitat for Humanity's largest effort to provide decent, affordable housing for low-income families.

Habitat Bicycle Challenge rider, Yale student and former Bigfork Junior High student Bente Grinde is impressed with the effort.

Since dipping their rear wheels in the Atlantic Ocean and pulling out of New Haven, her northern-route group - two other groups are biking middle and southern swaths across the United States - has helped with Habitat builds in Binghamton, N.Y., Gillette, Wyo., and Butte.

The Columbia Falls project is one of the best organized, Grinde and her fellow travelers agreed.

Coming to a well-ordered site, combined with the satisfaction of being involved in much-needed work, helped the group weather a Wisconsin storm, the mid-country heat wave, and the strenuous climbs through Wind River Canyon, the Tetons, Yellowstone.

On Tuesday, the sense of community the bikers had built served them well on the volunteer job site.

"It's an entirely different set of management needs, running a volunteer group rather than a production crew who already know what they are doing," said the 66-year-old Beardsley. "It's my job to teach them what they need to know … and at the end of the day, have them walk away knowing they accomplished something."

Beardsley and his wife, Susan, have traveled the country for five years working on Habitat homes. They settled in Olney not long ago, and now he is working on his 70th and 71st homes - designed by Susan - in 25 locations.

"There is such a huge need for affordable housing in the Flathead Valley," Beardsley said, counting himself lucky to have the health and time to help fill the McKessicks' "very critical need" for housing.

"Why not give back? It's just the common way to live one's life," he shrugged.

He urges Flathead Habitat on to a more ambitious land acquisition and construction schedule to fill ever-increasing housing needs.

Beardsley recounted Habitat founder Millard Fuller's story from the poorest in Sumter County, Ga. In 1992, organizers decided they needed to build 500 homes to eliminate substandard housing in the county. Eight years later, they nailed the "Victory House" sign on the 500th home, a testimony to success in getting community backing.

"I've been haunted by that ever since," Beardsley said. "Why should we have any substandard housing here? When we have the resources we have here, why should we put up with substandard housing?"