Some volunteers at the Jimmy Carter Work Project used their hands to carry the boards that would become homes. Others used their hands to feed the people whose hands carried the boards. Still others used their hands to soothe the hands, shoulders and backs of dozens of aching, sweating, mud-splattered volunteers.
About 10 students working toward therapeutic massage certificates at Ayers State Community College contributed their skills to the Habitat project Wednesday.
Nikki Manojlovich and Johnjalene Woods, both 33, carried their equipment down to the small sponsor’s tent near House 11 Wednesday morning.
With a few flips, folds and twists of knobs, they transformed a wad of metal and vinyl into a massage chair.
Their first customer, Rinique Simmons, knelt on the chair and leaned her face into a tissue-covered pillow.
Woods braced her feet against the straw-covered ground, and began pressing into Simmons’ back. She ran her palms down either side of her spine. She patted and kneaded. She karate-chopped down the word “Homeowner” on Simmons’ T-shirt.
“Are you sore anywhere?” Woods asked.
“My legs,” said Simmons, who had been working all morning on her house.
“Everybody’s complaining about that,” Woods said.
Manojlovich took off the Simmons’ watch and began to stroke her paint-splattered hands, rubbing one finger at a time.
Manojlovich and Woods will be among the second class to graduate from Ayers’ two-semester massage program, said Gayle Crause, an instructor in the program.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to get out with the community and educate people,” Crause said. “Habitat is such a worthwhile project — it was a great honor to go out and help these people.”
The chair massages, she said, would help warm up and relax muscles, and ease some aches and pains.
“That was very relaxing,” Simmons said, hours after her massage. “I started to fall asleep while I was sitting there.”
By the time she had finished, several more volunteers were waiting for a turn in the relaxation chair.
“I’m supposed to leave at 12,” Woods said. “I think I’m going to hang around.
“I’m serious,” she said over the din of hammers and saws. “This is beautiful.”
