I never thought that I would ever tweet. But then again, I
never thought I would have a blog, send text messages or be on Facebook.
But I got into tweeting the way I often try something new: I
was challenged.
National Women Build Day is almost upon us. Held the week of Mother’s Day, Habitat
International invites affiliates to apply and, if selected, they receive a
$5,000 Lowe’s gift card, a banner to hang the day of the build, special
t-shirts, and other items that change from year to year (hats, water bottles,
etc.).
Habitat for Humanity Tucson has been lucky enough to have
been selected to participate all five years it has been in existence. The women
who have participated in the past have raised the walls on a Habitat home,
rolled trusses into place, built interior walls, and done finish work in order
to meet the dedication deadline.
Because this is an important milestone, Habitat
International has given this year’s week a theme: The Build Generation. As part
of the celebration, they are asking affiliate staff to specifically recruit
young women between the ages of 18 and 24 to participate and, in addition to
hammering, have them tweet about the experience while it is happening.
Did you get that? Habitat International is implying that the
women who are usually out on site for this event – women between the ages of 40
and 70 – don’t know anything about twitter, let alone how to tweet. Really?
Well, OK, so I admit I had never had any inclination to
tweet but to suggest that only young people can do it got to me. Since my
fabulous Introduction to Technology class with Trevor Smith, I have really felt
empowered!! I went to the Pima County Library’s page and found “The Baker’s Dozen” – a set of 13 mini-classes on website construction, downloading music
and everything in between – and printed off the twitter instructions. After only a few minutes, I was tweeting! My
handle is 5dogs2catsBrown and I practice by sending tweets to Ed Schultz during
his MSNBC news show. My comments have actually appeared in the scroll at the
bottom of the screen – I have 4 followers and I am following 29 folks myself!
So, during National Women Build Week, on our day (May 12), I
will be out at the job site tweeting my heart out - and reminding everyone that
I am 59 years young.
