Rain bursts throughout the week have not been a deterrent for the close to 700 hundred volunteers at the Mishawaka Carter Works Project build site in Mishawaka. The rain was sort of welcome, offering a break from the spike in temperatures northern Indiana saw this week.

Volunteers are working full steam ahead, trying to finish as much construction as possible on the 28 homes on the site, while other volunteers are also working on remodeling 17 homes on a work site in South Bend.

Jonathan Reckford is the CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, which oversees more than twelve hundred affiliates around the world. He says the level of sticktoitiveness in Mishawaka is

common when the Carter Works Project comes into town and he says that’s the point.

“We don’t want Friday to be the end of this,” Reckford said, “We want it to be an onramp or launch to accelerate the community coming together and solving affordable housing in this area.”

With seven acres recently acquired, due in part to the Carter build week, President and CEO of St. Joe County Habitat Jim Williams says that’s what the affiliate plans to keep doing.

“I’m going to need to build 100 houses next year just to accommodate all the new volunteers that want to come build with us, I’ll take that problem any day of the week,” Williams said.

The non-profit Habitat estimates more than 1,500 volunteers have The Carter Works Project will officially close Friday evening with a ceremony at South Bend’s Century Center.