While we highly value all our volunteers, Tom Leath consistently exceeds our expectations.
Tom has been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of Horry County for several years. He is always eager to learn and help out wherever necessary. One thing is for sure, Tom is always the first one on the job, even regularly arriving before the Habitat staff!
Tom’s attention to detail makes an enormous difference in our organization. We often see him on Mondays and Thursdays (non-construction days) putting finishing touches on things or correcting something that is driving him a little crazy.
He loves working with other volunteers and staff but most of all with the families that we serve. One of Tom’s talents is his ability to make tasks easier for inexperienced volunteers. His demonstrations break down tasks into simple, easy-to-learn steps. If you are fortunate to be on a crew led by Tom, learning a new skill won’t be the only benefit. He also explains the “why” behind a process, leading to an understanding of the bigger picture and resulting in a better volunteer experience.
It is quite common for our construction team to incorporate process improvements initiated by Tom into our routine operations. One example includes an idea we adopted in our floor installation process – for a savings of about 1 ½ days for each house! He has also developed tools that make our work lives easier. A few specific examples include folding house plan tables, “story poles” that streamline measuring and standardize cabinet heights and tool jigs that speed up repetitive tasks.
Tom’s quality setting is always locked onto “How would I do this if this were my house”. While we tend to move forward once we achieve “good” quality, Tom helps us take a step back to see how we can do better with minimal to no additional effort or expense.
Tom is one of those one in a lifetime volunteers that every Habitat for Humanity had. We are very blessed to have Tom as part of our TEAM.
When we think of Tom, James 2:20 comes to mind, “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” Tom understands that we must put our faith to work and there is no better place than Habitat for Humanity to exercise that.
Habitat for Humanity of Horry County is certainly blessed to have Tom Leath as a core volunteer!
– Chad Charles, Construction Director
– Rod Adelstone, Site Leader
