When stepping into the Bryan/College Station Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, chances are you’ve come across a man selling painted rocks or serenading guests with his guitar as they wait in line. That man is 83-year-old Kenny Bergmann, a ReStore volunteer since the summer of 2021. He began as a construction volunteer in September 2020.
Kenny is proud to show his love for our community through service. To date, he has logged more than 400 hours as a B/CS Habitat volunteer. Kenny relishes his work at the ReStore because it allows him to steward customers in even the smallest interactions.
“It can’t get better than this because I love helping people,” Kenny said.
In his younger years, Kenny was a proud member of the United States Air Force and served his country with pride before leaving his military career and returning to Boerne, TX. Upon his return, he began working in the family business. Eventually, he became a carpenter with encouragement from an uncle in the lumber industry. His more than 30 years of carpentry skills made him a natural for volunteering at Habitat.
Before he came to us, Kenny was a family man who worked at the St. Joseph’s hospital (then called The Med) until his wife retired from her nursing career around the time COVID-19 began affecting their lives. He had to leave his maintenance job there and proceeded to work a variety of “honey-do” jobs, as he called them. However, he is “too young to retire” and needs to live an active life, so a friend of his recommended that he should begin volunteering with our Habitat construction team.
The ReStore team embraced him as a member of the family and eventually set him up with his own desk to greet customers and guests of the ReStore.
When asked why he does what he does, Kenny responded that “the good Lord gives [him] good days and [he] wants to do all [he] can for the world” while he is here.
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