Norma Fletcher saw an ad in the Omaha World-Herald about the first Women’s Build for Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

“All women, that’s nice,” she said. “I won’t have to sweep the floor.

The Omaha stay-at-home mother had no experience in construction. As a child, she enjoyed working with her father on projects around the house. When her son was in Boy Scouts, she helped build birdhouses.

“I just liked working with my hands,” she said.

Norma arrived at the construction site of that first Women’s Build and met a group of “very nice ladies,” including Mona McGregor, another volunteer and now a construction supervisor with Habitat Omaha. “They showed us how to do things,” she said. “After that, you keep coming back and coming back.”

Twenty-six years later, Norma, now 72, continues to volunteer for Habitat Omaha, working on Thursdays with the all-women crew, building homes in North Omaha. Over the years, she’s trained hundreds of other women how to do construction and learn valuable skills.

“My hands don’t do a lot of things anymore,” she said. “But we have such a wonderful group that has been coming out for the last three or four years. It’s a lot of fun.”

Norma’s volunteer efforts have reached beyond Omaha. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she spent a week in Louisiana to help with rebuilding.

Twice, she worked on Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter Work Projects – in Denver with her husband, Terry, and with an all-female crew in Memphis. She was in awe of the former president’s work ethic as she volunteered alongside him.

“He had a lot of years on me, but he was still out there working,” she said of Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100. “He didn’t go out shaking hands with everybody. He didn’t want to stop working.”

In 2016, the Fletchers traveled to a village in Zambia, Africa, to participate in a Global Village mission trip. The couple and group from Habitat Omaha constructed two homes, using cinder blocks.

“At the end, when we were done with the homes, they had this big celebration with singing and dancing,” Norma said. “It was a neat experience. They were so happy to get a house that had a door that they could lock.”

Norma never expected that answering a simple ad in the newspaper would lead to so many life-changing experiences, both for her and the families she’s helped.

“At the end of the day, you look at everything you’ve done and think, ‘Wow, look at what we accomplished,’” she said. “That’s the great feeling that keeps me coming back year after year.”