“We have had support from every community on the Sunshine Coast and it has made a difference,” Ed says. “When I tell potential donors about Habitat, their immediate response is, ‘what do you need?’ It is an incredibly supportive community. We are never turned down.” Right from the start, Ed and Gwen were both fully committed to Habitat for Humanity. Gwen has served as public relations chair and board chair and served on countless committees in addition to putting in thousands of hours of desktop publishing, making thank-you scrolls, posters, tickets, business cards and PR material. “I would be nobody today without the support of Gwen, my wife of 65 years, Ed says. Gwen likes to tell a story about one of Sunshine Coast’s first Habitat families, a single mom with two children. “Irene kept her house so immaculate. As soon as she moved in, she got soil and made a garden. We could see we had a winner. Unfortunately, one of the volunteers who helped build the house thought she was a winner, too. He ended up marrying her and taking her away from us. She went from a struggling single mom to a family with a bright future.” Vivian’s story is also inspiring. “She made me feel just how worthwhile Habitat can be,” Gwen says. “She was separated from her three kids in the Philippines and was working three jobs here, plus volunteering. She wanted a house for her family so badly. I finally met her children at the Canada Day parade in Sechelt two years ago. They had just arrived from the Philippines and they were all moved in to her Habitat home. She ran across the street and hugged me. She is a perfect model for a Habitat family.” As the chapter moved on to its next project, Habitat Village, on the Sunshine Coast Highway in Wilson Creek, more and more volunteers signed on. Gwen thumbs through a book with the names and phone numbers of all the volunteers she could call on for women’s work days. The women would install insulation and do the interior painting. It’s an impressive book. Meanwhile, Ed kept busy mining other sources of revenue for Habitat. He convinced local building supply companies to donate a playhouse kit to Habitat, which volunteers built (on Ed’s boat trailer) and raffled off. Canadian Tire donated a greenhouse kit, which was also raffled off.  “But the main source of income for Habitat is always the ReStore,” Ed says. Sunshine Coast’s first ReStore was in Wilson Creek, in the basement of the building where the FYiDoctors building is now. When that lease ran out, Habitat rented a hangar at the airport for a year. “We were surprised when our sales kept up. People were willing to drive all that way to the airport. Meanwhile we were desperately looking for a downtown building.” One day, Ed was driving by Spence’s Furniture (where ReStore is today) when he had an inspiration. “I didn’t even know the owner, but I called him up on a whim and asked if he would rent us the building. The owner said, ‘it’s weird you are phoning me. I have had health issues and I was just talking about selling the business and moving on.’  “I said, ‘I don’t want to get your hopes up. We can’t afford to pay the going rate.’ He said he’d think about it and call me back. When he called me back he offered us such a good price it made it feasible for us.” Other moments of serendipity followed. A volunteer used to use his own truck to go to the dump to sort and haul recyclables. When he had to give that up for health reasons, the head of the recycling committee, Margie Garrard, called Ed almost in tears. “We have to have a pickup truck, she said. ‘We’ll get a truck,’ I told her.” The next morning, a neighbor called and told Ed he had an old truck he wanted to donate, and did I want to look at it. I said, ‘I don’t need to look. We will take it.’” The “power of intention” laid a firm foundation for Habitat for Humanity here. But Ed is the first to acknowledge that he has had an army of volunteers with him. But it truly is “the power of every” that has kept his and Gwen’s vision alive.