YPAL – Green Team

This summer got started for me pulling garlic mustard weed alongside my children for a YPAL event to support Olmsted Parks in their efforts to eradicate the weed from our beautiful parks system.  The heaping trailer full of weeds gave me a sense of accomplishment and joy in knowing it was the efforts of young people in our community that made it happen. 

 The Habitat for Humanity House was next up on my YPAL summer agenda.  There had been a great deal of work done between the groundbreaking and when I returned to volunteer for Frost Brown Todd’s build day. 

 I worked alongside bright young attorneys- fresh out of law school who had come out and willingly lined up in the heat to be taught how to install windows and prep the exterior for earth friendly siding. What a great demonstration of what’s possible in our city’s future!

 It’s important to me that the leaders of my generation have the right goals, the right priorities, and the leadership skills to make them reality.  Thanks to everyone that gets up off the sofa and pitches in to make a difference in the lives of others!

By Tiffany Fults, YPAL PR Director

 Rotaract is all about service.  And fun.  In fact, our official motto is “Fellowship Through Service.”  We like to make a difference and have a good time while we’re at it.  And so, volunteering with YPAL and Habitat for Humanity was a no-brainer for Rotaract.

 The Rotaract Club of Greater Louisville is just one chapter of a worldwide organization.  Rotaract Clubs are locally sponsored by Rotary Clubs, and the Rotaract Club of Greater Louisville is sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of East Louisville Sunrise, Prospect/Goshen, and Louisville.  Rotaract is the arm of Rotary specifically geared towards young professionals under the age of 30.

 Each month we have a business meeting with a guest speaker, a social meeting or event, and most importantly, a volunteer service project.  Knowing that our members don’t have endless supply of time or money, we try to focus our efforts on individual “hands-on” projects while interspersing a few choice longer range and on-going projects.  Because of our international network of Rotaract and Rotary clubs, we also have a focus on international projects that not only benefit those in other parts of the world but also that build goodwill and better friendships.  Rotaract members who are traveling abroad can link up with other members in over 160 countries.

 Most of our volunteer initiatives focus on humanitarian projects- projects that directly benefit people in need.  Habitat’s “conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live” fits in perfectly with our mission, and we are proud to add this to the list of ways in which our members have contributed to the local and global community.

Abigail Mueller (Past YPAL Executive Board Member) of  Abigail Academy is a self-esteem expert for local, regional, and national high school and college women. In privately coaching women on improving self-confidence and giving high energy and inspiring motivational presentations she has heard from numerous girls that they want to be more involved in their communities. When YPAL asked her to share in this innovative LEED Habitat project, she was delighted to get on board and expose the Academy women to a hands on way to help build something so fresh- and enable the women an opportunity to be active with the top notch civic group YPAL!  

 The young women who contribute to the August 12th build day will be building confidence and personal esteem as they see their project come full circle. The full day will evoke team building lessons, include laughter and fun while being of service, and will give them the chance to see a new part of Louisville! The best part of our service day, will be that these young women will now know of YPAL and one day be able to bring their attributes to the organization as young professionals themselves!

 If you are a young woman of any age who would like a group to join, please feel free to email us and get on board! “Attention Abigail: YPAL Green Team!” abigailacademy@gmail.com

By Abigail Mueller.

Part of our mission at the Louisville Bar Association is to provide legal services to the community at large. To that end the LBA provides many pro bono services including the Call-A-Lawyer program which allows members of the public to speak anonymously with, and receive free legal guidance from, our member attorneys, and our Pro Bono Outreach Program which provides services to nonprofit organizations serving our community that do not otherwise have access to or cannot afford legal services. However, the LBA also encourages its members to take an active and positive role in the community, even if that role is non-legal in nature. As a result, each Section of the LBA is required to perform at least one public service project in the Louisville community each year.

As Chair and Vice-Chair of the LBA Real Estate Section respectively, Steph Horne and I are responsible for selecting the public service projects for 2010. While there are many worthy causes which deserve our support, our challenge is to select a project that will not only have a positive impact on the community but will also be meaningful to our membership and address those causes and issues which are important to our members.

Providing access to affordable housing for all segments of our community, especially the economically disadvantaged, and promoting environmentally responsible behavior and sustainability are issues of great importance to our membership. As a result, we are extremely excited to join YPAL’s Green Team in the construction of the first LEED Certified Habitat for Humanity house in the City of Louisville.

On Saturday June 26^th our membership will come together to create something that would normally be unattainable for a low-income family in our community, a home of their own. That by itself is a worthwhile endeavor. But providing a new home AND promoting a greener community at the same time? Well let me just say that I cannot think of a public service project which would be more worthy of our time and support. I am confident that I speak for all of our members when I say, we can’t wait to get started.

By Erik Lattig, Vice President Real Estate, Louisville Bar Association

The first time I volunteered on a Habitat for Humanity worksite was just a few years ago here in Louisville.  It was one of those hot July days that makes you break out in a sweat before you take your first step outside.  Cold water and sun block were our welcome companions that day, and the partially-shaded worksite provided some relief from the heat.  Along with my coworkers from Heine Brothers’ Coffee, I learned to hang vinyl siding that day- a task that none of us had any experience with up to that point.  My boss, Andrea, was the champion of the day; wielding a circular saw like a pro, she worked endlessly through the heat of the afternoon, despite the fact that she was 5 months pregnant.  By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but were proud of the work we’d done.  Spending a day in the sun and heat working for somebody else’s benefit was difficult, but in truth, it was some of the best fun I’d ever had.

This initial volunteer experience began Heine Brothers’ relationship with Habitat- both in Louisville and abroad.  Over the course of the next four years, more than forty 20 and 30-somethings from this company have traveled on house-building trips to Guatemala with Habitat.  It’s through these “volunteer vacations” that some of our baristas have first been introduced to worldwide poverty, volunteerism, and the people and places beyond our borders.  The work that Habitat for Humanity is involved in is the work of empowerment:  both the encouragement of folks who had never dreamed of owning their own home and the inspiration of volunteers to help someone that they’ve never met before.  Let YPAL’s partnership with Habitat inspire you to sweat for a good cause this summer.  As for the kids at Heine Brothers, we’ll see you on the worksite- with coffee in our bellies and work gloves on our hands!

By Sarah Crawford, Heine Brothers Coffee

Summit Energy was intrigued and excited to hear about the partnership between the Young Professionals Association of Louisville (YPAL) and Louisville Metro Habitat for Humanity. As such, we jumped at the chance to support the construction of the first LEED-Certified Habitat Home in the Bluegrass State.

 As a global energy management and sustainability services firm headquartered in Louisville, we felt like this sponsorship both benefited the community and aligned with our company’s expertise in sustainability services. As a frontrunner in the energy sector, we see daily that paying attention to energy and sustainability pays dividends. 

Summit Energy has pledged significant financial and volunteer support as a “Silver Sponsor” of the project, which includes allocating more than 100 volunteers to help make the project a success. Summit Energy will begin “Raising the Roof” on the Habitat Home on June 18^th!

By Tendai Charasika, Environmental Sustainability Analyst, Summit Energy

By Guest Blogger Matt Fillipps

When I moved to Louisville in February of 2009, I was certain of two things:

• I was going to get involved in a young professionals organization as a way to meet new people and find a great new group of friends.
• I was going to get involved with some sort of community service effort as I had in the past.

That is why, in the fall of last year, when I was approached with the opportunity to help coordinate the volunteer effort for a Young Professionals Association of Louisville (YPAL) LEED certified Habitat House, I jumped at it.  Soon after, I learned that our organization would be creating a non-profit arm called YPAL Cares.  From the get go, I have liked the idea behind YPAL Cares as it involves focusing the efforts of a group of young professionals on one large event over the course of a period of time.  While YPAL’s membership organization champions many terrific causes, most of our events are one-day efforts that do not have as great a benefit to the philanthropy we partner with or to YPAL for that matter.  The Habitat House will allow the young professionals of our community to have a more lasting impact in three ways:

• Impact on History – This will be only the second LEED certified house built in the state of Kentucky and the first in the city of Louisville.
• Impact on the Environment – LEED certified houses are built entirely from sustainable materials, so it sets an excellent example for future construction efforts in the community.
• Impact on a Family – The greatest part of Habitat for Humanity is that it gives a family who would not have otherwise had the means a chance at home ownership.

At the end of the day, it is these three things that will make this project an extremely rewarding one to be involved with long after we dedicate the home.