Home away from home

It's the familiar late-afternoon routine at recreational vehicle campgrounds everywhere: The newest arrival rolls in, spends some time parking and setting up a vehicle, then checks out the neighborhood.

“Just driving in, I saw all these houses over here,” John Lee said, waving toward the vacant houses near his motor home. “They're just boarded up, devastated. My God, that's horrible.”

Lee and his new neighbors are making their summer homes in an out-of-the-way corner of the Time Check neighborhood to help bring the area back from the 2008 flood. They're the first residents at Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity's recreational vehicle camp for out-of-town volunteers.

“It made it very nice to come up here,” Doris Meyer, 63, of Valrico, Fla., said of the park. She and her husband, Bob Meyer, 61, are site hosts for the camp's first season.

Developed with a $17,660 grant from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, the site at 1124 Fourth St. NW, the former Hubbard Industrial Park, boasts water, sewer and electrical connections for up to 10 RVs. Volunteers stay for free, with Habitat paying their utilities. The grant also covers the cost of winterizing the site, which is planned to operate three summers, according to Jeff Capps, Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity's executive director.

Like many retirees, Lee, 72, a former field engineer for a paper company in Lake George, N.Y., spends most of his time on the road.

“I spent the winter in Arizona and New Mexico,” said Lee. “I'm from New York, my second address is Indianapolis - my kids are there.”

Lee planned to head for a Habitat project in Oklahoma on Sunday, but he and Gretta, the schnauzer-terrier mix he found at a California shelter, steered for Cedar Rapids after consulting Habitat for Humanity's website.

“It seemed like they've got plenty of help (in Oklahoma), so I thought I'd find a place that needed some,” Lee said.

After helping with Cedar Valley Habitat's Buildathon last summer, the Meyers decided to return. They'll help build new homes and will rehabilitate existing homes under the A Brush with Kindness program.

“It started out as just on Saturdays at home and just increased,” Doris Meyer said of the couple's Habitat work. “We just enjoy doing this. At home, you spend the weekends mowing the yard and other stuff. Living in this (trailer), it's so easy.”

“You wouldn't spend a minute thinking about someone who puts all that effort into golf or fishing,” said Bob Meyer. “This is what we do.”

Few occupied homes are visible from the camp. The nearest neighboring houses are vacant, with overgrown yards and vegetation creeping through broken windows.

“You hear a lot about Katrina,” Lee said. “But honestly, the whole country doesn't really know what happened here. I didn't.

“There's a lot of history here, going to waste.”