From Louisiana to Craven County, Linda Kray has seen the HFH spirit in action

From the Gulf Coast of Louisiana to some of the hardest hit regions of Alabama and Mississippi, Linda Kray has seen firsthand the impact that Habitat for Humanity can have for those left homeless after Mother Nature offers up her worst.

Kray was part of the Habitat disaster relief team from Frederick County, Maryland that responded to areas in the southern U.S. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She had just recently begun volunteering at the county’s Habitat ReStore when the call came asking for team members to travel to New Orleans.

“I was just like ‘Well, you don't want me because I don’t know how to build anything.’ I knew how to hang up pictures but that’s about it,” Kray recalled. “But they said they’d train me so the next thing I knew I was on the plane with like 80 other volunteers from my region.”

After relocating in 2024, Kray stopped by the Habitat for Humanity of Craven County ReStore and soon found herself volunteering once a week. Beginning as a cashier, she can now be found slinging the store’s price gun every Friday. “They think I’m really fast, apparently,” she joked. “The volume of stuff that comes in can be just incredible some days. So I’m like the hero who can come in and just handle pricing so people can concentrate on other things.”

With a background in the insurance business, Kray said she was drawn to work with Habitat for Humanity due to the very tangible results she saw in her community. “The fact that if I showed up that day on a job site and swung a hammer and learned how to saw things, that meant that somebody else was getting a new home,” Kray stated. “It was the feeling of just because I was there that day and put out that effort, somebody’s life is changing because of me. That was just so cool, I loved it.”

Kray said she has seen the same need for affordable housing in Craven County. “It’s an issue everywhere, it seems,” she commented. “Regular everyday people are having to pay a tremendous amount more to find a decent place to live.”

Along with the work, Kray said the camaraderie of the Habitat for Humanity staff has kept her coming back. “I’ve got friendships that go back to Hurricane Katrina,” she said. ”And just the satisfaction of a job well done and handing the keys over to someone moving into their home is a really wonderful thing.” To learn more, visit CravenCountyHabitat.org.

Source: Craven Habitat October 2025 Newsletter.