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I’ve been looking at the posts from various teams who participated in Women Build 2016. It’s hard to believe that it was over a year ago that CFMS participated in Habitat for Humanity’s “Women Build 2015”. The reward of that day sticks with me to that day – while the physical labour aspect of performing construction work was rewarding in itself – the real reward has nothing to do with me personally. It was recently seeing the habitat for humanity newsletter, that featured a photo of the family we helped build the house for, and knowing they have now been enjoying their new home for a few months. I was unfortunately away at the time of the dedication ceremony, as I would have very much like to have be part of that as well, to have met the rest of the family. One of the highlights of the day I was on site was the opportunity to work with the woman who would be residing there when construction was complete, and seeing her gratitude and positive attitude to the work she was doing, knowing it would be for the betterment of her family.
It was also a great opportunity to work alongside some of my co-workers, in a different capacity than we would do in a usual work day. I’m still impressed by the tenacity and spirits my co-workers displayed despite the grueling physical labour we were performing. Most of us are often on construction sites, but it was a unique experience to actually be performing the work. Working as a CFMS team, and part of an even larger team, made for a very satisfying day.
A large part of commissioning requires thinking about building occupants, as a primary end goal is a building that will perform to optimal occupant comfort. This experience really brought the meaning of building occupants home, by having the chance to work with the future occupant, and seeing their smiling faces in the newsletter recently. It’s a perspective I keep in mind to this day, when especially in the modern world it seems easy to forget we are dealing with people when we are looking at computers and documents all day.
This was only one day, but I feel many positive things were gained in that day. I hope to have the opportunity to do this or something similar again.