With winter closing in, Thomas Hughes knows that the banging hammers soon will be quieted at Habitat for Humanity construction sites.

Volunteers won't be needed. Home building will pause until spring.

For Mr. Hughes, 73, of Buffalo, Butler County, the break is not particularly welcome.

"It gets boring," he said of the slow season.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Habitat for Humanity volunteer Thomas Hughes prepares to cut framing for a new window in the organization's home renovation project on Walnut Street in New Kensington. Mr. Hughes is the winner of U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart's Good Citizen Award. Click photo for larger image.

Mr. Hughes has given countless hours to the Allegheny Valley Habitat for Humanity for the past nine years and is eager to keep working. That generous spirit, combined with an all-around knowledge of construction, has made him a valuable volunteer for the chapter and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, has named him the year's Good Citizen Award winner, an honor she created in 1999 to recognize volunteers.

Diane E. Belitskus, executive director of the chapter, nominated him for the award.

"If you'd ask him, he'd say his forte is his drywall ability," she said. "If you ask me, I say his forte is anything you ask him, he can do. He's my go-to guy for anything."

Mr. Hughes hasn't worked full time at construction, but his full-time job inadvertently offered him the opportunity to broaden his skills. He worked as a coating technician at the PPG Industries plant in Ford City until he retired in 1993.

"In my early years at PPG, I was laid off almost as much as I worked," he said. "That was when I learned to do drywall work."

He has other useful skills, which probably can be attributed to his father, who was an electrical engineer, and his grandfather, a plumber.

By 1957, he'd learned enough about home construction to build his own house, with help from family and friends. He and his wife still live in it.

Mr. Hughes began sharing his expertise with Habitat for Humanity in 1997, when his church, Janes United Methodist Church in East Deer, organized a volunteer group to visit a Habitat affiliate in North Carolina to help build homes.

"They saw I had experience doing drywall and asked me to go along, so I went with them," Mr. Hughes said.

After that, when the Allegheny Valley Habitat affiliate was building a house, Mr. Hughes was there.

Because he was retired, he could devote long hours to projects that most volunteers were unable to spare.

"I can come fairly regularly," he said. "Most of the other volunteers have full-time jobs. I'm the only one lucky enough to be retired."

Since he started volunteering, Mr. Hughes has helped build 11 houses, and two more are under construction.

Habitat for Humanity uses mostly donated supplies and labor to build and renovate houses for people in need. The Allegheny Valley affiliate of the national organization serves northern Westmoreland County and northern Allegheny County.

During construction season, Mr. Hughes estimated, he puts in about 24 hours a week.

The chapter is busy. It recently finished one house and has another house and a renovation project under way, all in the New Kensington area.

In addition, each summer, the chapter organizes work camps, where groups of up to 50 people, including teenagers, from different states gather to work on Habitat for Humanity projects. Mr. Hughes helps organize the camps.

"Without Tom, I could not have had these camps. The kids would not have had the experience of helping those less fortunate, and we would not have had the opportunity to partner with so many groups from far and wide," Ms. Belitskus wrote in her letter recommending Mr. Hughes for the Good Citizen Award.

She said she nominated him knowing that the attention might make him uncomfortable, but she wanted him to be recognized for all he has done to help the organization and the people it serves.

Mr. Hughes was one of 12 candidates for the Good Citizen honor, which was awarded Sept. 25 during a ceremony at the Cranberry Township building.

"I was very surprised," Mr. Hughes said of being selected for the honor. "I sat in that ceremony and listened to what Melissa Hart said about those people and all the things they had done and thought I'd never get it."

"I couldn't have been more thrilled," Ms. Belitskus said.

Each year, Ms. Hart's office honors someone whose volunteer work improves the community.

"Without a doubt, Tom has made an enormous contribution to our region," Ms. Hart said. "In his nine years of volunteering, Tom has had an impact on the lives of hundreds of people throughout our region."

The volunteering has had an impact on Mr. Hughes as well.

"I enjoy it," he said. "It's not like work. It's like fun, mainly because of the people you meet."

"Most of the other volunteers have full-time jobs. I'm the only one lucky enough to be retired."