Many businesses include a service requirement for their employees to give back to their communities. The local bank that CC worked at, offered a list of volunteer opportunities in the community for employees to choose from, including spending eight weeks building a home for a neighbor.
This was completely outside of the human resource manager’s wheelhouse, which made her eager to sign up.
“I’m a nails girl,” CC expressed, showing off her most recent manicure. “But I am going to be rolling up my sleeve and getting down and dirty, building a house for someone who needs it. It just felt far more rewarding than some of the other options.”
The bank had partnered with the Atlanta chapter of a few sororities and fraternities, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to sponsor a new home with Atlanta Habitat.
Bruce joined the fraternity while attending University of Oklahoma and became an active member of the Atlanta Chapter when he relocated for work. He was out on a Friday night with a fraternity brother and the topic of volunteering came up.
Bruce griped about not volunteering in a year and asked his friend what opportunities he knew of.
“He said, I’m going to get you Saturday morning. And boom, I was at the house working,” Bruce chuckled.
While in the huddle on the first build day, Bruce noticed CC right away but was certain there would be no future.
“She didn’t like me,” he joked.
“No, it wasn’t that” she quickly defended.
It was more that she didn’t notice him.
When CC arrived that day, she realized that she knew a few of the women who were volunteering with sororities. CC went to Florida A&M, where she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc – the sister sorority to Alpha Phi Alpha.
Bruce described her as being surrounded by a group of cool girls, that you “naturally gravitate towards.”
As the weeks went by they began to become familiar and the various groups would hand out together after the build days were over. At one point, CC recalls a friend seeing a spark between the two that she had never considered.
“She goes, ‘I think you and Bruce might make a good couple,’” and CC remembers briefly considering it before asking, “well, you guys are all single. Why aren’t you interested?” and dismissing the idea altogether.
On dedication day, the group exchanged numbers and vowed to stay in touch. Bruce didn’t want to miss his opportunity and asked CC on a date.
She turned him down, for a year.
Every few months, Bruce would think of the extraordinary woman he met at the Habitat build and would call to see if she had changed her mind on him.
CC finally decided one date couldn’t hurt.
After going on the first date, CC knew she should have listened to her friend all those months ago. She had found her husband.
The couple married and moved to the Bahamas, where Bruce is from and raised two sons.
Recently, the pair just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and returned to Atlanta on a memory walk to celebrate the milestone.
“Our journey began with what some small, tiny, tiny, tiny little seed. We planted it for some family here and, it planted us because quite honestly, without Habitat, I doubt very seriously our paths with cross,” CC said.
