Friday, July 23, 2010

Video Footage from the Hard Hat Gala

Post by Jeff Skrenes, Hawthorne Neighborhood Council Housing Director. Video contributed by Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.

This spring, Habitat for Humanity came by and shot some footage of the EcoVillage in order to promote the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project at their annual Hard Hat Gala. Folks who saw the video at the gala kept on coming up to me, saying how passionate my acting was in the video. "That's because it wasn't acting," I said.

Interestingly enough, one of the first houses we went to was what the neighborhood has nicknamed "The Brick House," one we are hoping to save and rehab. As we were walking up to the place, I was telling the story about how excited I was in seeing all kinds of mortgage geeky paperwork that would get posted here. (Click here for a picture of that.) Frankly, I had to struggle to keep my composure when I saw the order to raze the building posted.

After shooting the footage, I went into high gear and contacted our partners at the city to ask that the raze order be removed. They complied by the end of that same day, a sign of how committed our partnership with them really is in the EcoVillage. But out of all the footage we shot, the ONE clip I had hoped WOULDN'T be used instead was put RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE VIDEO. I love the irony of it all.

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