The Build Team Hammers Away at Second Chances
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Interview BY DAVID RUTTER ONNELL C AN MC S PHOTO: SU The board of directors for The Build Team are all business leaders that live in Barrington. From left: Owen Heath, a retired Allstate executive; Peter Schaeffer, an attorney; Mark Garrette, a CFO for a large international company; John Dawson, of Dawson Builders; and Nancy Schumm, a local environmental consultant. The Build Team Hammers Away at Second Chances HE DAY HAD BEEN SWELTERING and It was an exuberant moment. Dawson followed At that moment, Dawson saw the world triumphant for John Dawson. The house him, but could not find the toddler at first. He through a slightly different prism. He had been he and his Habitat for Humanity team hadn’t gone to his own bedroom. around the country to build homes for those who Thad labored to build for a week was done. Dawson “I turned a corner and saw him sitting on the had lost them to natural catastrophe or economic was the finisher, the skilled carpenter who makes top of the closed toilet seat, just sitting there,” hardship. He had gone to New Orleans four times the final, subtle details of a new-built house feel Dawson recalled. “I asked him if he didn’t want to to build houses. He had gone to Joplin, Mo., a year like a home. go visit his new bedroom.” after the infamous tornado leveled that city. And when the New Orleans family saw it all No, the little boy said, as he looked up at Daw- But in that moment with a little boy, a new in- glistening and regal in the late day sun, it was a son. This is just fine.I “ t’s small. I like this room. sight came to him. He had given up his career in thing of beauty. The family had been for a year It’s mine.” high finance at a middle age and turned to what he living in an 8-foot FEMA trailer and though this Dawson saw at once the human tragedy that loved most of all – home construction. Hammers, house was modest by most standards – barely played out in the little boy’s hopeful eyes. The nails, electric drills, and drywall would replace 1,000 square feet – it was a sumptuous cathedral child had been an infant when Hurricane Katrina financial spreadsheets. And then homes would to them. hammered the Gulf in August 2005, and the little come from that transformation, including the one And then their youngest child, a 2-year-old boy had no retrievable memory of ever being in he and his family occupied in Barrington. boy who had no memory of ever having lived in a a room larger than the ordinary bathroom of his His customers had grown nearly as fast as he real home, ran through the front door and inside. new home. could finish homes, and even the recession of 34 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com 2007 could not stop him. “We got started after the commitment. recession hit, so we didn’t even know what the ‘old The Build Team will be that second chance. Who is John Dawson? normal’ was,” he said. “They’ll be matched with experts and they’ll get But in the striking moment he has seen the an- trained,” Dawson says. “I worked with a group in swer to a larger quandary. What do people really Seattle who sought out ‘second chance’ volunteers. need? What would do the most good? The place Normally, all projects start with more volunteers where charity, faith, community, and holding out than you can use, and then with fewer than you a strong hand meets in a person’s heart was at once need. TheS eattle group had 90 percent of their a more complex intersection, and more simple, volunteers stick with them. Pretty remarkable.” ONNELL C than he had thought. That is why there will be The The Build Team has lofty goals. It will not only AN MC Build Team arising this year in Barrington. He had build better places to live; it also will reconstruct S an idea, and now he had a way to make it work. lives. They’ll shoot for four projects a year each “I had worked for years with the groups from spanning six to 10 weeks (mostly weekends) and PHOTO: SU the Presbyterian church here in Barrington, and need 30 to 50 volunteers. They’ll need money. we had painted fences, cleaned up yards, and done “That’s always hard even in a giving community John Dawson lives in Barrington. He has all the smaller jobs,” he said. “We had gone on mis- like Barrington,” Dawson says. But he has no been married to his college sweetheart, sions to help. And then there’s the Habitat way.” doubts that it will work. Melissa, for 34 years, and they have two Dawson had seen that helping was often tied As a result, Dawson discovered that as a se- grown children, Andy and Emily. to media attention, but the need was even more nior manager at his own home building firm and He holds a Bachelor of Science degree acute after the spotlight had left town. founder-by-default of The Build Team, he was from the University of Wisconsin-Eau “You can do a yard or clean up for a day. At sensing the shape of a larger enterprise. But it Claire and a masters from the University the other end is building a home from scratch. But needed professional leadership, financial support of Utah in Evaluation and Test (statistics), in the middle is a very large gap,” he said. “There of the community, worthwhile projects to tackle, along with two Associate degrees. Daw- are people who live in homes, but find they can’t and it needed people willing to sweat. son started his career teaching 5th grade. afford to stay because something needs to be re- “Here is what I found,” he said. “If you have a After receiving his masters, he moved into paired and they can’t afford it. Maybe it’s the project for which the cost is about $20,000, you the private sector where he held manage- plumbing or electrical or the roof.” can go to local vendors and they’ll contribute. If ment and president positions in staff, and What Dawson decided to invent was not only you get the volunteers, that cuts the cost in half. line positions, both domestic and inter- the all-purpose project outreach, but also an out- So a $20,000 a project can be done for less than national. He specialized in re-engineering reach for people who need a second chance. These $5,000.” divisions. He served as the president for “second chance” volunteers have fallen on every “This all stems from charity and I admit I’m a a joint venture. He built and spun out a sort of hard time that can befall a person – finan- risk taker when it comes to charity. My kids and I company from a large financial services cial, spiritual, or legal. But they have not given have done this for years, so I don’t care so much company, and has also built a small home up, and they want the chance to contribute to life about contracts or liability,” he said. “But I realized building business. again. They wanted to learn a trade. They wanted a I needed help in all those areas with this.” Dawson served on the District 155 direction for their lives. They needed someone to So he reached out to Barrington friends and School Board. He has spent years helping offer them that chance. found all the intellectual muscle The Build Team others through Habitat for Humanity and These second chance volunteers stick it out, would require. The nature of modern philanthro- ran crews in multiple trips to rebuild flood Dawson says, and become part of a long-running py requires managing necessary details. If you ravaged New Orleans. He can be heard on Sunday mornings giving children sermons at his local church Mark Lane (on left) and John and has been involved in Christian children Dawson work on a project in 2013 ministry for 30 years. He was a director to replace a roof in a Third Lake, and coach for a local children sports pro- M Ill. home. The family in the home EA T gram for 12 years. struggled with the funding of home For fun, Dawson is a competitive ath- projects due to job loss and personal HE BUILD lete in biking and running. After winning in T issues including cancer. The work included removing existing shingles, Illinois in 2008, he represented Illinois at Y OF S general roof repairs, adding new the National Senior Olympics in California OURTE shingles, and addressing a discovery in 2009 where he finished 10th in the 800 C of rot in a wall and floor. meter, and 13th in the 1500 meter races. PHOTO: QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 35 Want to help? The Build Team is 501(c) 3 charity that helps those in need from is the time to a building perspective. The corporation is organized and will start planning the operate exclusively for charitable purposes that include help- outdoor living area of your dreams. ing families that struggle with financial burdens to complete home repair projects that enable them to remain in homes they currently own. The Team will provide job training to individu- als who need “second chances” so that they can learn skills to obtain jobs in the construction business (i.e., how to frame a house using new tools and providing tools later) and will work to increase the number of volunteers in the United States.