Tom, 77 years young, is from Buffalo, NY. He married in 1969, has two sons, and now has 5 grandchildren! He and his wife will be celebrating 55 years together this year. Tom earned a civil engineering degree from Clarkson College and also became a US Marine sergeant before starting his civilian life. For over 30 years, he worked in engineering, construction, and project management for heavy industrial projects.

Beyond work, Tom likes to camp and travel. He’s been able to live in 12 states, visit the other 38, and has been on 5 continents! He started with Habitat to work on a project his church helped sponsor and has stayed involved with Habitat in two counties. Tom truly enjoys helping deserving people (especially veterans), working with Habitat’s like-minded lead volunteers, and passing along his skills.

Rahim is 43 years old and is from Karachi, Pakistan. He came to the states in 1988, attended Druid Hills High and then Georgia Tech. He’s been fond of coding since childhood and went on to work in the software industry for 30 years. He also got married in 2004 and has two kids.

When not working, Rahim enjoys drumming/strummig, rock climbing, and Habitating. Rahim regularly volunteers with Habitat because he desires to make a visible difference in the community where he resides. And he’s been able to do that surrounded by other like-minded volunteers.

Ron is 76 years old, soon to be 77, and is from Greenville, SC. He spent most of his career working at Emory University in the physiology department of the medical school. When not working, Ron enjoys gardening and hiking.

After retiring in 2011, he wanted to find a way to stay active and useful. He’s always liked carpentry and building things which were a natural fit for Habitat. Ron has been with us for a while and we’re glad he was able to find us. He stays involved because he genuinely enjoys donating his time and labor for worthwhile causes. Plus, it keeps him out of his wife's hair.

Allen is 72 years old, originally from Pennsylvania, and moved to Georgia in 2015. Before retiring, he spent 29 years working for the Navy as a construction and maintenance supervisor. When not working, Allen enjoys working outside and using his hands.

With his background and experience, it made sense for him to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. Since then, he’s been able to relate to many projects that we work on. As a bonus, he's able to share his knowledge with other volunteers who come once, a few times, or regularly.

We also wanted to include Paragon Bank as a special Golden Hammer Award.

Paragon Bank was founded in the early 2000s after independent banks nearly vanished from the Memphis landscape. A concerned veteran banker, Robert Shaw, decided to take action with other like-minded individuals.

In 2008, Paragon Bank established the Paragon ACTS (Assisting the Community Through Service), which is an initiative focused on providing needed volunteer support to nonprofit organizations that make a difference in education, hunger, or housing.

This partnership began in 2017 and was made possible thanks to long time board member and vice president of Paragon Bank, Eric Larson. Since then, Paragon has consistently provided support to our organization through donations and lots of volunteer hours.