Volunteer of the Year: John “Rocco” Stembel

The same is true today as it was 40 years ago when Atlanta Habitat was founded – volunteers are a foundational part of the organization.

Generally, volunteers are introduced to Habitat through our most well-known arm, building a home for a family in need. However, those who continue to come back find that there are plenty of opportunities to contribute to the mission.  

When John “Rocco” came to Habitat about 14 years ago he had limited construction experience and some free time. He had heard about the organization from the news and word of mouth. He joined a build one day and has committed to coming back ever since.  

“I just thought it was incredible,” Rocco explained. “It was fulfilling, you’re tired and you could see [a home] going from nothing to a box with the walls in one day. It was an amazing experience.”

As Rocco joined more builds, he began to create relationships and friendships with volunteers and house leaders.  

On a build site, house leaders are the people volunteers look to for leadership. A volunteer can move into a leadership role as a skilled supervisor. Construction skilled supervisors act as a secondary role to the house leaders. They oversee and instruct up to 10 volunteers on the build site.  

Rocco remembers House Leader Alex as the most influential in this decision to shift into the skilled supervisor role. In this role, Rocco made closer relationships with the other skilled supervisors that he could learn from.  

House leaders don’t necessarily spend each build day swinging hammers. Rocco took some of those observations and used them on build sites.

“At least one of the Clark Howard builds had so many volunteers out pre pandemic,” Rocco remembered.  “I actually took my tool belt and just put it away. [I realized] this is not a day I’m swinging a hammer. There’re enough people to swing hammers and do the stuff. It’s a good day to be teaching and organizing, which is a whole other skill.”

The opportunity to experience the build from the other side gave Rocco a new level of respect for House Leaders.  

During lunch on a build site, Rocco had casually mentioned looking for other ways to contribute to Habitat during the week, instead of just Saturdays. Denise, a fellow skilled supervisor told him about the Family Selection Committee that she served on, and he decided to look into it.  

The Family Selection Committee is responsible for selecting families to purchase a home through Atlanta Habitat, making fair, legal, and compassionate decisions that honor each family’s dreams, history, and reality. This was an opportunity to experience the beginning of a homeowner’s journey, instead of the end like Rocco was used to.  

“I get to meet all the homeowners,” Rocco said. “It’s really pretty special to interview people and hear their stories and see them in the kind of the beginning of their habitat journey.”

Volunteering on both ends of a family’s journey gave Rocco more of an insight into the need for affordable housing and how important it is to build these homes.  

“I’ve been to a dedication, and I’ve been on a couple of build days where someone I interviewed, was on the job and as soon as I see them,” he said.  “It’s great.  It’s like we’re all friends, but we don’t know each other that well. It’s pretty cool because by the time the build started, they’re probably 100 hours in, they’ve taken a bunch of classes.  It’s not done yet, but they can see where it’s going.”

Still not finished finding a way to contribute to the mission, Rocco set out to find another way to help families.  

After watching a This American Life Episode about the over 300,000 Free Little Libraries that are scattered around the country, Rocco knew that this was a project he could bring to Habitat.  

“I interviewed a mother with her mother, and she had a five-year-old son. They worked opposite shifts so they could always be with the son. They said we don’t have a lot of time to do anything else but work and read and play with our son.”

Rocco built his first Free Little Library at his home, then made four additional libraries for Habitat neighborhoods. To align with Atlanta Habitat’s sustainability mission, Rocco used recycled materials from the school his wife works at.

Rocco suggested letting the neighbors fill the libraries with their own books initially. To date, the libraries are still thriving in their respective neighborhoods and Rocco plans to build more for additional Habitat neighborhoods.  

When asked what keeps him coming back year after year, Rocco simply said, “the need for housing is great, but at least with Atlanta habitat, it’s the people.”