Santanta: Local women play a key role in construction of Valdosta place of worship

Published 2:22 pm Tuesday, February 13, 2024

With her bright white hard hat in hand and her HI Vise jacket, Mayte Regueiro heads out the door of her Valdosta, Georgia, house to use her training with fall protection equipment to climb roofs, clean portable bathrooms, and anything that is needed on these cold winter days in Georgia.

Regueiro has volunteered every day from Monday through Saturday for the next two months on the construction site for a remodeling of Kingdom Hall where congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses will meet in Valdosta.

“I’m learning new skills and meeting new people every day on the project,” said Regueiro. “It’s been an absolute joy to be involved. To start off the day with a Biblical thought and also safety reminders that are explained with such simplicity, emphasizing the sanctity of life.”

Women represent only 3.9% of tradespeople working in construction nationally, according to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research report that cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

By contrast, the Witnesses’ construction projects regularly see large percentages of female volunteers, both skilled and unskilled.

“We would be lost without our vast number of women volunteers,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Their attention to detail, high quality of work and infectious enthusiasm are all vital to the success of our building projects.”

When the Witnesses moved their headquarters from Brooklyn, New York, upstate to the town of Warwick in recent years, the construction project drew some 27,000 volunteers from around the country, 25% of whom were women — like Kierstin Golec of Huntington, Massachusetts.

Golec and fellow female volunteers were assigned to site excavation efforts within days of arriving on the project. They received intensive training to operate heavy equipment right alongside the men on the crew. Golec vividly recalls the first time she came face to face with the dump truck she’d soon be driving.

“I approached the vehicle, and the tires were taller than me!” she said. “It was a surreal, humbling and exciting experience.”

Reflecting on the three years she spent volunteering on the build, Golec says she won’t forget the confidence shown in her and other female volunteers.

“All of us, men and women, were trained so we could be involved to the fullest extent possible,” she said. “They displayed a lot of trust in us equally, and I’m forever grateful to have been treated with such dignity.”

Regueiro expressed a similar sentiment about the Valdosta South Kingdom Hall to support this remodeling: “We’re working shoulder to shoulder, and it’s such a positive environment. Being able to have encouraging conversations. Listening to the sacrifices that all the volunteers are making in order to support this project. I learned that it is not just about the building, but more so it is about the people.”

Regueiro enjoys working on this project with her two daughters that are actively involved also and her husband. “It has truly brought our family even closer. Being able to do things together. Getting up early and getting our hard hat ready and all the PPE. and at the end of the day although being tired, we have a smile that brings so much satisfaction and brings true happiness.”

Volunteers have come to the site from the two local congregations that will share the facility and from as far away as North Carolina. The project is scheduled for completion by late February 2024

For more information about Jehovah’s Witnesses, their history, beliefs and construction activities, visit their official website, jw.org, with content available in more than 1,000 languages.