Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Build Homes for Families to Honor Jimmy Carter’s Legacy (EXCLUSIVE)
These country superstars are committed to helping others
Many celebrities are quick to write a check to support a worthy cause, but Garth Brooks and his wife and fellow country music superstar, Trisha Yearwood, are happy to contribute some good old fashioned elbow grease. The Habitat Humanitarians honored President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday (Oct. 1) by hosting the Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter Work Week Project through Oct. 4th in St. Paul, MN, where thousands of volunteers from around the world are gathering to build 30 new homes.
Garth and Trisha have long been involved with Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit organization working in all 50 states and more than 70 foreign countries to build or improve homes. “We started in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina. We just went to do some press that day and we ended up building with the Carters,” Trisha tells Woman’s World of working with President Carter and his late wife Rosalyn. “We were hooked, and we have been lucky enough to build on almost every Carter build since. It’s just been just so rewarding in so many ways. We feel guilty when somebody says, ‘Thank you for being here.’ We love it so much and we really get so much out of it.”
“I’m amazed, just what you do every day at home, how much it applies here,” Garth adds, “because at home, anything Trisha tells me to do, I do. That applies really good here while we’re all building.”
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Trisha says the volunteers are there to do whatever it takes. “Garth is definitely the whatever-it-takes guy. The only thing I don’t love to do is get on the roof. Jonathan is seven feet tall,” she says of Habitat for Humanity’s CEO Jonathan Reckford. “So, if I need something nailed really up high, I always find Jonathan on the site.
“Really, every build is different. It’s what is required in the moment,” she continues. “Today so far, it’s been a lot of just nailing with a hammer, but you’ll be called to hold up a wall or you’ll be called to just whatever the job is. That’s what’s great about Habitat, you’ve got different skill sets on the build and everybody just pitches in. And if you don’t know how to do something, you’ll learn how to do it.”
A community coming together to build homes
Jonathan, who is also on the Zoom interview with Garth and Trisha, admits he enjoys his work. “I love to build. I actually spend a lot of time saying, ‘Thank you,’ to folks and promoting Habitat, but it’s really fun. The mission becomes real when you’re actually out working alongside the families and seeing the work in action. That’s what fills me up for all the other stuff we get to do day in and day out. It’s a joy to be out here building.”
A former executive at the Walt Disney company, Jonathan volunteered for Habitat and had no idea at the time where it would lead. “I brought my team out for a day of building in Orlando, Florida. Disney was spending a fortune on what I would call artificial team building, and we spent a day putting siding on a house alongside a family. It was such a powerful experience that a bunch of us got hooked and we kept coming back. I had no idea that many years later, I was going to be working for Habitat.”
Jonathan is excited about the houses being built this week in St. Paul. “This is a wonderful project called The Heights, and it’s going to be 1,200 homes, mixed income. Habitat’s building 147. We’re building the first 30 this week, and they’re going to be highly sustainable. They’ve got solar shingles. They’re going to be incredibly energy-efficient, which is really important for affordability. These families will be able to own a home with very low operating costs, good for the environment and really good for the families.”
Honoring President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday
President Jimmy Carter is the first US president to live to 100 years old. He and his wife Rosalyn, who passed away in November 2023, were married 77 years, the longest married couple in presidential history. The Carters lived a life of service that had tremendous impact on others.
“Having built alongside President Carter and Miss Rosalynn for many years, watching the way they moved through the world, they are role models for the kind of volunteers to be, for the kind of Americans to be, for the kind of human beings to be,” Trisha says. “The biggest thing I’ve learned from them is to try to find ways to give back. Nobody has done it better than the two of them.”
Garth agrees. “They worked together. What I take home is how much we get done if we just all work together, roll your sleeves up and get it done,” he says.
Jonathan says he learned a great deal from the Carters about servant leadership. “It’s one of the great privileges of my life for 19 years to see President and Mrs. Carter in action,” he says. “President Carter would talk all the time that Habitat was the best way he knew to put his faith into action in a tangible and practical way. Can you name another former president who has slept in church basements, slept in tents, camped out in Haiti? That direct personal involvement along with all the other wonderful things he and Mrs. Carter have done for the world has always made him such a role model for me.”
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood share memories with Jimmy Carter
Garth and Trisha have so many fond memories of their work with the Carters. “One of my favorite ones was Pascagoula,” Trisha says of the Habitat build in Mississippi. “We walked into the tent and President Carter stood, and Garth said to him, ‘Oh, you don’t need to stand Mr. President.’ And he said, ‘I’m not standing up for you, Garth.’ And he came over and hugged me, and I felt like just really validated in that moment. It was really great. That’s one of my favorite memories.”
Garth says some of his favorite memories of working with the Carters involve just how real and down to earth the famous couple always were. “Truth is they argued just like we do over everything. We always worked by the same house, so their house and our house were right next to each other. [They were] out front cutting this board and disagreeing on the measurement of the board. And finally, he just decides he’s going to take it over, and the last thing she says is, ‘Okay. Go cut it again. But it’ll still be too short,’” Garth says with a laugh. “I have loved that story forever. We got a lot of great stories.”
For more information on how you can become involved and support Habitat for Humanity, visit www.habitat.org. “See how you can be part of helping us create a world where everyone has a decent place to live,” Jonathan says.
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