It is no overstatement to say that Habitat for Humanity runs on volunteers. To build and repair housing affordably, we greatly rely upon our hard-working volunteers to continue pushing our housing projects forward. One particularly hard-working person we wanted to feature today is Darryl Olson. Darryl retired in 2013, at which time he became a “regular” at our Habitat builds. Over the last seven years, Darryl has worked several days a week on build and repair sites for our various housing projects.
“The Habitat staff is great, and the AmeriCorps members are a joy to be around. Working with all the people here is a big draw for me. I really enjoy getting to know all the new volunteers!”
Darryl first volunteered with Boeing where he managed a team developing a web application to monitor inflight performance. In the late 90s, Boeing started bringing teams out for regular volunteer days. Darryl enjoyed his time on the construction sites so much that after retiring he just never stopped building!
Darryl says he doesn’t feel like he is using his time well if he isn’t helping people. Outside of his time helping Habitat, he enjoys coaching Lindbergh High School students in its robotics program. Darryl also served as a Big Brother for 13 years and saw how much of a disruption it was for kids in the program to have to move every two or three years. When the family he was helping finally got a Habitat home, Darryl remembers what a huge difference that made in the family’s life.
Here at Habitat for Humanity Seattle – King County, we couldn’t be more grateful for Darryl and all his hard work. He is exactly the kind of selfless, hard-working person that our organization depends upon. Thank you for being a volunteer!