How to get there from here

“Because of the satisfaction I get from helping others, I’m able to keep going and always look for another opportunity to pass on that feeling that was given to me,” says Bryan Reaka, Habitat campus chapter adviser and assistant professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

Since 2003, Reaka has helped create those opportunities with Habitat Bowling Green/Warren County and the Western Kentucky campus chapter, which sends Collegiate Challenge teams on builds and has branched out into community education and advocacy.

Bryan Reaka, How to get there from here, Habitat for Humanity

“God’s given me a talent,” he says. “I can look at a pile of lumber and see a finished product. I also have the ability to show people how to get there from here.”

Reaka often gives newcomers to home building a chance to swing his grandfather’s hammer, which is smaller and easier to handle than most. Every build, he says, honors what his father and grandfather taught him about sharing what he’s learned and offering a hand up.

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