CONSTRUCTION WORK SATISFIES VOLUNTEER.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

When she first heard of the project a month ago, Marjorie Brown didn't quite know why she felt drawn to help build a house for a needy family in Cathedral City.

By the time she returned home last week from five days on the Habitat for Humanity house-building project, the 38-year-old mother of two, a preschool teacher, knew the answer.

``It's great doing something for someone else,'' Brown said. ``It's a great experience. It's a great uplift for someone's spirit, and it's a great confidence-builder.

``I'm so excited, I'm telling everybody I know they should do it too. Some people think I'm crazy. It doesn't seem to be me.''

Georgia-based Habitat for Humanity, founded in 1976, is a nonprofit Christian organization that builds homes worldwide for low-income families.

Brown learned of the Cathedral City project from a friend and immediately became interested. A resident of Simi Valley for 10 years, she had helped serve meals for the disadvantaged at her church, the United Methodist Church of Simi Valley, but never worked on a charitable project requiring hammering and sawing.

She thought of reasons not to go: difficulty getting time off from work and home responsibilities. She decided, however, to do it. She arrived in Cathedral City, just outside of Palm Springs, for orientation Nov. 16. The next day she was part of a group of about 40 - most of them women - hammering, sawing and lifting 150-pound sheets of steel-studded fly ash walls.

The work was ``muddy, dirty,'' Brown said. At least five people were needed to lift and set each heavy wall into metal brackets in the floor, she said.

The 11-hour work days, although physically exhausting, turned out to be fun, she said. She came away with new knowledge of tools that she will put to good use as she and her husband make improvements around their Larkin Court home.

Also, she met women from 15 states and a wide variety of backgrounds, she said.

Her only regret was that she could not stay in Cathedral City until the house was finished. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom house was scheduled for dedication Saturday, she said.

Brown came back Wednesday with enthusiasm for Habitat for Humanity projects and said she hopes to work on ones closer to home in Ventura County.

She also wants to encourage her friends in Simi Valley to pick up a drill or a saw at Habitat projects. She almost inadvertently recruited a volunteer while she was in Cathedral City.

One night the bartender struck up a conversation with Habitat volunteers at the hotel where they were staying. Brown mentioned the construction project.

While working at the house the next morning, she glanced up and saw the bartender wandering around the work site. He volunteered to do some painting.

``That made me feel good. I had just mentioned it to someone in passing,'' she said.

For information about local Habitat projects, call Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County at [phone].