Sally Pickell – Albemarle County
Tell us about your volunteer activities.
After retirement I wanted to find ways to both keep busy and help in the community. So shortly after coming to Charlottesville in 2000, I volunteered for several years at the UVA hospital and at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. In early 2001 I began volunteering as part of the midweek crew on the Habitat for Humanity construction site, where I still continue one day a week. In addition, the last few years I’ve also spent one day a week at the Habitat Store repairing and assembling furniture. Other volunteer activities take place at my church, Meadows Presbyterian Church.
What inspires you to volunteer?
It’s inspiring and rewarding to work with other volunteers and prospective home owners on the Habitat for Humanity construction site. The camaraderie with crew and staff is great fun, and seeing how hard the homeowners work and how much this opportunity means to them is very heartwarming. I’m happy to be a part of bringing their dream to fruition. I also find it rewarding to learn to do the many and varied jobs involved in building homes.
If your volunteer work could make one long-lasting change, what would you want it to be?
It’s difficult to identify a single long-lasting change, but I think each organization I’ve been involved with has helped improve the quality of someone’s life. Each home that Habitat for Humanity completes makes a tremendous change in the lives of the new owner and his/her family. For them, that is certainly a long-lasting change. To reduce or eradicate substandard housing in Charlottesville/Albemarle County is the big goal, and I’m happy to be a part of that effort.
What is a little-known fact about you?
I went skydiving about 6 years ago.
What brought you to Albemarle County?
We came here in retirement. We were drawn by the university and the sense of history. The medical facilities have become important to us, as well. After having lived in Northern Virginia for decades, we also appreciated a smaller town atmosphere.
