Volume 2 Issue 12

October 20 , 2006

Lettitor
By Heather Holbrook

Volunteers from Isle of Palms, SC, to travel to India for
Habitat for Humanity Project

     Habitat for Humanity volunteer Rosemarie Dreier will travel to a village near Lonavala , India , Oct. 30 – Nov. 3, 2006 , to work alongside former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. Rosemarie will join more than 4,000 volunteers in building 100 homes as part of Habitat’s 23 rd annual Jimmy Carter Work Project.
      The Habitat homes will be built in partnership with low-income families who currently live in dilapidated and temporary housing. In rural areas of India , houses are often poor quality, made of mud, grass, leaves, reeds and bamboo. In contrast, typical Habitat houses in India are made of climate-appropriate and sustainable materials, with most houses ranging in size from 240 to 360 square feet with a living room, veranda, kitchen and toilet.
     The need for housing in India is dire since nearly a quarter of its 1.1 billion population live on less than US$1 per day. Habitat for Humanity has been at work in India since 1983 building nearly 12,000 homes, making it one of the homebuilding organization’s largest country programs.
     “Habitat for Humanity” volunteers are at work around the world helping provide simple, decent housing in partnership with families in need,” said Rosemarie. “It is an honor to build with the former U.S. president and first lady, fellow volunteers and new homeowner families. This will be an experience of a life time.”
     Dreier has worked with Habitat for Humanity in Anchorage , Alaska , Taos , NM and the local St. John’s Island chapter.
     The Carters are Habitat’s most famous volunteers. Each year since 1984, the Carters have given one week of their time to build homes and raise awareness about the need for simple, decent and affordable housing. Previous JCWP events have been held in New York City , Georgia , Michigan , the Philippines , Hungary , South Korea and South Africa . Habitat’s JCWP 2007 will be in Los Angeles .
     For more information about Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy Carter Work Project, visit www.habitat.org/jcwp/2006/.

Habitat for Humanity International is an ecumenical Christian ministry that welcomes to its work all people dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in Americus , Ga. , in 1976, Habitat has built more than 200,000 houses in nearly 100 countries, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1 million people. For more information, visit www. habitat .org.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris, though it wasn’t clear whether or not he was just joking since the style of the letter was very humorous. It’s possible he simply wanted to state one of his more well known adages to the people of France, “early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” The idea, however, was picked up and seriously applied by William Willett, an Englishman who wrote a dissertation on the subject entitled “Waste of Daylight” and submitted it to the British Government in 1907.

Daylight Saving Time was finally put to use in 1916 by the German government and by the British government in 1917. The United States picked it up in 1918, but the idea only lasted for two years, as it proved very unpopular since people woke up earlier in those days. DST was reinstated briefly during the Second World War between February 9, 1942 and September 30, 1945. Afterward, the United States left the idea alone, allowing states to observe Daylight Saving Time or not until April 13, 1966, when the Uniform Time Act became law and declared Daylight Saving Time to be observed from the first week of April until the last week of October. The law was amended in 1972 to allow states straddling time zones to exempt the entire area of the state on one side of the time zone from Daylight Saving Time. Finally, in 1973, the Uniform Time Act was amended to make the first Sunday of April the beginning of Daylight Saving Time.

Starting March 11, 2007, Daylight Saving Time will be extended another four to five weeks, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November.

Currently, Daylight Saving Time is not observed by Arizona, Hawaii or anywhere in the United States territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In Europe, Daylight Saving Time is commonly referred to as “summer time” and is reflected in their time zone names as well: Central European Time (CET) becomes Central European Summer Time (CEST).