Dan Smigiel
When General Motors closed its Wyoming plant in 2009, Dan Smigiel retired after 31 years as a tool and die machinist there. He was a third-generation GM worker—following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather, who started at GM in 1936. “And if they hadn’t closed the plant, I’d still be there,” he says.
Instead, Smigiel retired from GM at the age of 53. Now he devotes at least two days a week to volunteering as a construction crew member for Habitat for Humanity of Kent County. Smigiel has been a Habitat volunteer for 10 years, starting when he was working third shift and his father had retired from GM. “We went on Habitat projects together,” he says.
Until then, Smigiel had “zero awareness,” as he puts it, of affordable housing issues.
Now he’s a passionate advocate for Habitat, drawn by the organization’s commitment to helping families become first-time homeowners through a combination of “sweat equity” and no-interest mortgages.
Smigiel enjoys the opportunity both to learn new skills and to teach new skills to inexperienced volunteers. “Everybody needs to learn something new every day,” he says. “There are a lot of skilled guys to learn from—and it’s neat to see the joy that people get from accomplishing something they’ve never tried before.”
Tackling a variety of challenging worksite tasks together, Habitat staff and volunteers develop a rewarding camaraderie, Smigiel says. “The site supervisors and construction crew guys have incredible patience,” he says. “They’re dealing with a new crew every day.” There are benefits to the physical activity, too: “I don’t have to join a fitness gym,” Smigiel says with a smile.
He also enjoys connecting with Habitat homeowners as they work side by side, at dedication ceremonies for completed houses, and in the years after they’ve purchased what is typically the first home they’ve owned. An avid bicyclist, he often catches up with owners of houses he’s worked on when he’s out on a bike ride.
He recalls one homeowner in particular. On a summer day, as they worked together on the home she would be purchasing, he learned that neither she nor her three young children had ever seen Lake Michigan. “Be ready at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow,” he told her. “We’re going to spend the day at the beach.” The day they spent together had a lasting impact—on them and him “The kids had a ball, and they’ve gone back again since then.
“There’s so much that we take for granted,” Smigiel says, adding that whether he’s volunteering for Habitat or helping friends with fix-it projects, “It does more for me than for them.”
