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Margaret Costello
Former Board Member and Event Chair
Habitat Board Member and Event Chair Passes Torch
She was trying to work in her home office on a warm August afternoon, but her mind kept wandering back to the events of recent weeks. She hadn't been herself lately. She had been making some very uncharacteristic decisions. She didn't normally give large sums of money away, but she did that summer at family camp. She didn't normally watch television either, and yet that day it was playing in the background. She didn't normally do a lot of things, but this summer seemed to be unusual, and that day would turn out to be no different.
Off in the distance, she heard Oprah talking about her Angel Network and Habitat for Humanity International. Immediately Margaret Costello knew why the television was on. "As soon as I heard Oprah talking about Habitat, my head jolted up," she said. "There was a phone number on the screen for viewers to call and I dialed the number. They gave me the number to the affiliate near my house. I had no idea Habitat was in Menlo Park, let alone one and a half miles from my house."
Margaret called Peninsula Habitat for Humanity and a volunteer answered the phone. "Very awkwardly, I asked the volunteer how much a Habitat house cost," she said. "The volunteer asked if I wanted to apply for a home or help sponsor a home for another family. When I said I wanted to sponsor a house, the volunteer put me through to Pat Irish, the person in charge of fundraising at the time."
"The whole experience was 'a God thing,' " Margaret said. Irish was supposed to be on vacation, but had just stopped by the office and ended up taking her call. When she mentioned the cost of sponsoring a home, Margaret felt prompted to say, "I think I'd like to do that. I'd like to sponsor a house."
While they talked, Margaret felt as if she were experiencing déjà vu. "My family and I had just come back from camp," she said. "While we were there, I committed to donate a large sum for a bed and breakfast where couples could come for divorce prevention classes and counseling. I wasn't a Christian at the time, but looking back, the Holy Spirit prepared me to give to Habitat through my donation to this camp. Up until then, I'd never written a check to a charity organization for more than $5,000."
Irish explained that Margaret's donation coincided with Peninsula Habitat for Humanity's 10th anniversary and its first accelerated build event called "Raise the Roofs." The affiliate was building six houses in six days, and all but one home had sponsors. "Pat asked if it was okay for Habitat to put my donation toward the sixth house," Margaret said. "The house was for a single mom, and I thought it was really fitting to sponsor that house because I'm a single mom."
Margaret listed her kids - Amber, Brook and Austin - as the sponsors of the house, and in the days that followed, she recruited friends to come and build with her at "Raise the Roofs." On the sixth day of the event, Habitat hosted a block party and Margaret brought her kids. "I remember walking down the street towing them in hand and asking Brook, 'Do you know why this house is in your name,' " she said. "I told Brook, 'I want you to know that God tells us to help people who have less than we have.' "
Not long after the first "Raise the Roofs," Habitat asked Margaret to chair the next "Raise the Roofs" event and join its board of directors. "I had just accepted Christ and was praying that God would show me what my calling was right away," she said. "I'm an A-type personality, and organizing an event and participating on the board were right up my alley."
She couldn't believe that God would answer her prayer so quickly. "I'm a good leader," Margaret said. "I'm the cheer leader type who gets people excited about doing things, and 'Raise the Roofs' is a fun project you can use to encourage volunteers who want to participate, but might now otherwise because they don't know how. "
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