From helping build homes in Siberia to serving on the Habitat for Humanity of Omaha’s Board of Directors, Anne Carroll has dedicated her life to building not just houses, but a legacy of service.

Anne first learned about Habitat for Humanity after reading about former President Jimmy Carter’s efforts with the organization to rehabilitate an apartment building in New York City.

Several years later, she read Habitat Omaha was planning a week-long project called the Phoenix Blitz Build, which included constructing a new house and remodeling a house damaged by fire.

Anne and her two children, ages 14 and 16, volunteered.

“I thought they needed something to show them there is another side of life,” she said. “We did it for a week and it was fun. I met people I had never met before. It was all new to me.”

That was 34 years ago. Today, she is one of Habitat Omaha’s longest-serving volunteers.

Soon after volunteering on a worksite, Anne was asked to serve on Habitat Omaha’s Board of Directors. “That was the thing to do,” she said.

She served as treasurer, paying the organization’s bills from the office in the basement of Pearl Memorial Church.

“My table – it wasn’t a desk – was underneath all of the choir robes,” she said.

As Habitat Omaha moved offices, including to a former firehouse, Anne followed.

“I just kept adding on more and more hours because there were more and more bills to pay,” said Anne, a former math and computer programming teacher.

Eventually, Anne realized the role was just too big for a volunteer. She resigned and Habitat Omaha hired a full-time accountant on her recommendation.

From 1999 to 2015, Anne traveled with the Global Village program, a transformative weeklong international volunteer experience with opportunities across five continents. For the first few years, Anne was a team member. She was then asked to be a team leader.

“I would tell my team that we’re not in charge,” she said. “(The local people) know how they’re building their houses. We are just the worker bees.”

Anne completed 21 Global Village trips, including memorable experiences in Siberia, where she helped build a home using logs and moss, and another where she worked with local families to build homes from cane reeds.

“They had these huge reeds that were wild,” she said. “They cut them down and then we bundled them together like a 2 by 4.”

Over the past 15 years, Anne has worked closely with the Avenue J Brothers, a group who are part of the Community Corrections Center’s work release program and helps renovate or build affordable homes in Omaha. What began as serving meals to the workers grew into a deeper connection and she realized these men and women needed more opportunities to turn their lives around.

Anne also had the opportunity to walk from Americus, Ga., the headquarters of Habitat for Humanity International, to Atlanta with Millard and Linda Fuller, the organization’s founders. The group walked 20 miles a day, sleeping in church basements and listening to Millard speak each night.

At 81, Anne continues to volunteer at Habitat Omaha’s office in Millwork Commons doing “other duties as assigned,” ranging from filing paperwork to pulling data.

She’s amazed at the organization’s growth since those first days volunteering in July 1990.

“It’s mind-blowing,” she said.