kuu - Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

Working side by side with a homeowner named Lacy, hand
digging a foundation on a steeply sloping lot in South St. Paul.
Lacy’s ten-year old son visiting the site
and asking Steve, point blank, how
much money a real lawyer makes in
real life.
The dedication of a house on
Portland Place — a house built by
Dorsey and Whitney and Partners
in Mission — when someone asked
if it wasn’t difficult to get lawyers
and Lutherans to cooperate. And the
answer from a voice in the crowd:
“Not really. Lawyers create the guilt
and the Lutherans bear it.”
Orchestrating annual work camps for lawyers and Lutherans was
not enough for Steve; he volunteered to serve on the Twin Cities
Habitat board — for two full terms. He believed that maintaining
a grassroots focus was in the organization’s best interest and
that volunteer passion was the key to success. In 1998 he helped
form a Volunteer Services Committee that would devise ways to
more deeply involve volunteers in our
work by engaging them to help shape
program activities. Under Steve’s
leadership, first steps were taken to turn
the organization’s large volunteer corps
into committed advocates who would
deliver simple but powerful messages:
that we build homes for people in need
who are willing to work for a better life;
that the community must take part;
and that a compassionate community
realizes that “those people” are “us.”
A life may be spent amassing
great wealth, yet lived in poverty. But a real life? A real life is a
heritage — the gradual gathering together of knowledge, belief,
gesture and action. Autumn follows autumn. And memories are
shared from a comfortable chair.