Amish family gives ‘Christmas miracle’ to Fairfield Habitat

FAIRFIELD – Due to a series of unfortunate events, construction on the Habitat for Humanity house in Fairfield had fallen so far behind schedule that organizers considered putting the build on hold until spring.

Then Fairfield Habitat was blessed with a “Christmas miracle,” according to Habitat construction manager Kathy Brown. That “miracle” came in the form of an Amish family consisting of four brothers, their two cousins, and a good friend who came all the way from Ohio to work a full Saturday in the bitter cold on Dec. 17.

The Greater Fairfield Area Habitat for Humanity is building its fourth house on North 12th Street, and plans to build seven more on that street. Brown said the current build had fallen two months behind schedule, with only the concrete base finished and the walls built but not installed.

“Our board was discussing this, wondering if we should wrap it up,” Brown said. “We considered just tarping it, because I can’t have volunteers out there when it’s below freezing.”

The delay this fall has been caused by a number of factors, such as the loss of Fairfield High School students, who have contributed most of the labor on previous Habitat houses. The construction class the students were part of was cancelled this semester due to low enrollment and because the instructor switched to teaching ag classes. Brown said another hurdle has been lining up a plumber, since Habitat’s plumber for the last 14 houses, Luke Jagen, just retired.

“We were really scrambling to find a plumber, and that put us behind,” Brown said.

To top it all off, Brown suffered a personal setback in November when she fell off a ladder while working on an awning. Brown has been in physical therapy ever since, and she’s limited in what she can do on the Habitat build.

Since Habitat was in such a time crunch, and did not have its normal workforce to rely on, the board needed to think of creative solutions. Shanaz Kreider, who runs the Habitat ReStore on West Burlington Avenue, suggested calling the Mast brothers, an Amish family from Drakesville who have built the additions on the ReStore. Brown feared it was already too late in the season to do any more construction on the home, since it would take six weeks for the trusses to arrive.

Brown called one of the brothers, Marvin Mast, thinking this last ditch effort wasn’t going to work. She couldn’t believe what she heard. Two of Mast’s brothers, Matthew and David, make trusses, and they agreed to donate their labor to make Habitat’s trusses. They made the trusses Friday morning, delivered them that afternoon, and put them up the next day.

The seven-member team who showed up at the construction site Saturday morning consisted of the four Mast brothers – Marvin, David, Matthew and John – their cousins Marlin and Jeremiah Mast, and a friend from Ohio, Alvin Schlabach.

“They were all delightful, sweet fellows,” Brown said.

The team worked 7.5 hours that day in the freezing cold, erecting the walls, trusses and roof. Brown said their work that day shaved five weeks off the schedule.

“We were over two months behind, and now we’re just three weeks behind,” she said.

Marvin said he has a construction crew, but he didn’t have time during the past week to send them to the Habitat house, so he got his family to help. He said that, even though the temperature was below freezing with the wind howling on Saturday, it didn’t affect him and the others too much.

“I feel good right now,” Marvin said that afternoon. “Earlier today I was pretty cold, but now I feel great.”

Marvin said he specializes in post-frame construction and “barndominiums.” Though he has done construction on the Habitat ReStore, this is the time he and his family have helped build a Habitat house.

“I just thought we’d do this as a humanitarian project,” he said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com