Habitat for Humanity

We stored the bagged lunches that we brought into the fridge, so the Salvation army could hand it out for their 8:30P.M. snack later on that evening. We went over to the main area, where there were chairs, tables and a movie playing on a large flat screen tv. We also had socks. The homeless could always use socks. A worker announced that we were brought socks, and the homeless politely and quietly raised their hands if they wanted socks. It is the middle of January, and socks are always in short supply.

I talked to one of the movie watchers. In the summer he works as a landscaper, but unfortunately, that job is not year-round, so he is laid off in the winter. In the winter, he has a job with a private firm to remove snow. Although his boss is under contract and gets paid regardless if there is snow or not, this man does not get paid if there is no snow - how unjust. Tonight he will sleep in a room with 3 other men. He is luckier, because he got one of the smaller rooms. But regardless of the room size, the walls are thin and at night he will be able to hear the snoring of others, the feet walking over to the toilet, and the disturbances caused by others. However, he has found a job and on February 1st, he starts working. Best of luck to him.

We watched Slumdog Millionaire! Yup, as tuition paying students, we have to make good use of UofT facilities such as projectors and classrooms.

Our first event of the New Year! We had a bake sale! Yummy brownies, cookies, muffins, rice-krispy squares and chocolate!

Winter has come and it is cold!

We sorted quite a bit of clothing, toiletries, and containers!

Happy New Year! See everyone in 2010!

Thank you to all who donated to the holiday food drive for the Daily Bread Food Bank!

Happy Holidays everyone!

We participated at the Habitat for Humanity fundraising ginger bread build on Dec 5. We made ginger bread homes!!! Lots and lots of sugar and candy =).

On Dec 6, we volunteered at the ginger bread homes. We made sure everyone got their ginger bread homes and we sold cookies!

On Dec 9, we auctioned off our ginger bread homes at the Civil Department Holiday Party. We raised $105 for Habitat. =)

The last sandwich run of the semester! Wow, since June, we've done 9 sandwich runs! In addition to sandwiches, we now have socks, nice thick socks! The homeless can now have a meal and keep warm at the sametime.

Thank you everyone!!! Our first sandwich run was on 5 months ago on June 12, and on that day, we could not have imagined that we would have 8 more sandwich runs before the end of the year. Thank you again everyone.

Sandwich run! For the first time ever, we also have socks today! Winter is fast approaching and hopefully, the homeless can feel a little warmer with socks! For the end of November, the weather was fairly warm tonight, so it was a pleasant walk outside.

We had dinner at this Indian restaurant on Baldwin. Yum yum. It was a good experience.

And we have another sandwich run next week. Let's hope the weather stays warm and dry. See everyone next week :). Thanks to everyone for helping out so near to the end of the semester.

PIzza sale for Habitat for Humanity! We set up station in Bahen lobby and Galbraith lobby.

Meat pizza, cheese, pizza, vegetarian pizza, pop, rice krispies, chocolate, we had it all!

This is probably the last pizza sale of the school year. Thanks for all those who helped :)

We had a meeting on November 10th, which is near the end of the semester. It was great to see so many committed committee members come out.

And on November 13th, we had our social event! We had a wii with DDR mats. For food, we asked each individual to bring in an item. There were lots of pop, some cake, even home made buritos. Of course, there were lots and lots of cookies (the cookie monster would have loved to come!)

It was a pizza sale in Bahen for Habitat for Humanity and Free the Children. Thank you for Planet Pizza for sponsoring us! Thank you for all those who came out to help with the pizza sale. And special thanks to all those who donated money.

We even had speakers and music at our pizza sale!

There was a wide variety of pizzas to choose from: meat lovers (pepperoni and ground beef), pepporoni, cheese, and vegetarian.

Treat-or-Eat!" On Oct 31st, a group of Eyes of Hope volunteers and friends dressed up in costumes and gathered together on the night of Halloween, knocking door by door asking for can foods, which will then be delivered to the local food bank. It was windy and chill, but it certainly did not knock down our enthusiasm! Some family have already prepared can foods to donate, and those who didn't, gave us candies. In less then 2 hours, we've successfully collected bags and bags of non-perishable foods. Being able to treat or treat and treat or eat at the same time? Sweet!

The weather was a lot better this week. No rain and the temperature was very warm for the end of October.

We had a few good conversations with the homeless tonight. We met one homeless person at city hall and he was very nice. He was happy to get a bagged lunch from us. Why was he staying outside tonight rather than a shelter? Because of the bed bugs. There are bed bugs at all shelters.

We encountered another homeless man outside a shelter and we gave him a bagged lunch. He was obviously happy because the shelter just fed him some spaghetti!

There's another sandwich run next week! See everyone soon! :)

It was raining and raining hard today! Not to mention, it was also cold! Thank you to all who braved the rainy weather to hand out sandwiches to the homeless. It really shows your dedication and commitment. Thank you all :)

Unfornately, today, we learned a lesson on material properties. The paper bags rip when exposed to water! Luckily, not all the bags were wet, only a few. We were fortunate that we had cars to drive us around to deliver the sandwiches. Otherwise, I don't know how else we could have done it tonight.

Sandwich run again! Giving out nutritious food to the homeless is a good thing but it is not the main reason for the sandwich run. After a hard day on the streets, it is really nice to see a smile and know that someone cares. It is also important that we check up on the homeless to make sure they are okay and they don't need any help.

The sandwich run is as much about the participants as the homeless. You get to meet new people, make new friends. Sitting around the dinner table with new people is a very nice experience. Hope to see everyone out again on October 23 and November 6!

This was our third sandwich run. We had lots of help so the sandwiches were made very quickly. We also had to make our own dinner - pasta! Yum!

We all had a good time, met new people and made new friends. And hopefully, we also helped made some homeless person's day a little better.

We hosted our first pizza/bake-sale of the year! We had yummy 3 topping pizzas and cup-cakes up for sale! The pizza was sold out in the first few minutes so we had to scramble to order more! The sale was a success!

We also had our first general meeting on September 16. We had 2 sessions and in each session, we divided the participants into groups so everyone could have a conversation.

We participated in the Scott Mission Homeless Shelter event which essentially was serving meals to the homeless! This involves setting up the tables with: napkins, cups, plates, spoons, forks, muffin. Next, it involves putting food on the plates in the kitchen and then bringing the food out. Finally, there's the fun part - cleanup!

We participated in the UTSU and Engineering Club's days on September 4 and September 6, respectively. The club members met after the club's day event on September 4 to enjoy the evening at the club social event.

Today, we built the scaffold and we wrapped the house with a water resistant wrap. (see picture on the far right. You can see the scaffold and the "blue" wrap around the house)

We made sandwiches and delivered it to the homeless. We had 19 people help out to make 80 sandwiches. Thanks to all :)

On July 20th, we built the exterior walls. By July 27, the exterior walls were completed and we began building the interior walls!

We served meals to the homeless! This first involves setting up the tables with: napkins, cups, plates, spoons, forks, muffin. Next it involves putting food on the plates in the kitchen and then bringing the food out. Finally, there's the fun part - cleanup!

We built the second floor exterior walls!

Eyes of Hope took part in the Daily Bread Food Bank event on June 17th. 12 Eyes of Hope volunteers successfully sorted about 2700 lbs of food in a period of 3 hours

This time, we focused on constructing the structural components of a wall. First, we selected the wood. Second, after carefully measuring the wood, we cut the wood. Third, we nailed the wooden pieces to form a wall on the ground. Finally, we erect the wall, put it into place, make sure it is straight, and then we nail it into place.

The purpose of the sandwich run is to provide homeless people with a nutritious meal, and to check up on the homeless, to make sure they are okay and to let them know that someone cares about them.

It starts with preparing the bagged lunch - putting a balony sandwich, juice, apple and granola bar into a brown paper bag. Making the balony sandwich is pretty simple - take a piece of bread, put on two pieces of balony, a piece of cheese and then put on the top piece of bread!

Then we walk as a group downtown to distribute the bagged lunch to the homeless people we come across. Even though most of them probably had a lousy day, the large majority were very kind and appreciative.

Eyes of Hope sent 36 female students and staff to the Habitat for Humanity Women Build Blitz where thousands of women fundraised almost $2 million and helped build homes for 16 low-income families in Toronto . One of the families that will benefit from this project is the Guerrero-Vega family. This family of seven moved to Canada from Mexico in 1998 and has been struggling with various difficulties like cramped living spaces, stolen vehicle, and unplanned rent increases. The family is hoping to share a sense of ownership and pride through their new Habitat home. The Build Blitz was a rewarding and empowering experience for the participants because not only were we able to directly help families in need, but we could also gain construction skills and confidence during the build.