By John G. Lunt, MD

My bucket list has included a number of realistic and an equal number of outlandish items. Learning Italian so I can order in the native tongue a pie in Positano is perhaps real and outlandish at the same time, but I’ve always wanted to see the splendors in Antarctica, hear Mozart in Vienna and build homes for those without one.

I have spent 30 years building and rebuilding hands and arms and noted the immense satisfaction and fascination with the construction and anatomy.  Such as it is with a house, the foundation, framing, interior walls, plumbing, electrical and all the interior details parallels our own inner workings.  For those without a house or place to live the emotional toll can be high, similar to the awful loss of function following a significant trauma. Similarly, the way in which a crushed hand is reconstructed and then rehabilitated resulting in preservation of function is much the way a house becomes a home.

I wish to build houses for the folks whose lives have been turned inside out from a hurricane, or lost due to foreclosure or destroyed in a fire or perhaps they never had one.  A house is often the biggest purchase we ever make, and the most important one. It is the place where families begin and end.  Building homes can continue my desire to help the community while still using my hands to build that which people need. And, at the end of the day a few callouses and bruised and scraped up fingers are that for which hands were created. Lastly, I don’t have to worry about an insurance authorization, Medicare reimbursement hassles or the medicolegal aspects of drywall!