ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:

While President Carter held office for only four years, his active post-presidency has set him apart among former presidents. Beyond his work on human rights and election security at the Carter Center, the 39th president’s name is tied closely to Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit dedicated to building homes. From member station WABE in Atlanta, Emma Hurt has more on why that’s the case.

EMMA HURT, BYLINE: Jonathan Reckford has been running Habitat for Humanity International for more than a decade. But sometimes people don’t realize that.

JONATHAN RECKFORD: One of the great myths is that President Carter started and runs Habitat. So, you know, if you did word association and said Habitat for Humanity, the next thing that comes out of most people’s mouths is President Carter.

HURT: While Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have never run the organization, the word association is planted deep.

RECKFORD: And in fact, while they didn’t found it, I think they have been responsible in so many ways for the world finding out about it.

HURT: Habitat for Humanity was born out of an interracial Christian farm in Americus, Georgia, about 10 miles away from where the Carters grew up. The nonprofit pools volunteers to build housing for people in need around the world. The Carters first started volunteering with Habitat around their south Georgia community. And a few years after they left the White House, they led a major Habitat work site in New York City in 1984.

RECKFORD: And spent a week renovating a tenement building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and sleeping in a church basement, and no one had ever seen a former president behave this way.

HURT: While it wasn’t the original plan, the Carters have participated in Habitat builds around the world every year since. 2019 made their 36th. It was in Nashville, Tennessee. Hundreds of volunteers came together to build 20 new homes. Before getting to work, here’s 95-year-old Carter speaking then about why they kept coming back.

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JIMMY CARTER: We’ve always got more out of it than we put into it. So we have a net gain when we come to a Habitat project because the emotional feelings among the volunteers and the homeowners, particularly, kind of bind us together in a spirit of love and appreciation and mutual respect.

J CARTER: We’ve always got more out of it than we put into it. So we have a net gain when we come to a Habitat project because the emotional feelings among the volunteers and the homeowners, particularly, kind of bind us together in a spirit of love and appreciation and mutual respect.

HURT: Carter, who taught Sunday school for most of his life, spoke often about how the work of habitat melded with his faith.

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J CARTER: And one of the best ways to practice my faith as a Christian is to participate in Habitat projects every year.

J CARTER: And one of the best ways to practice my faith as a Christian is to participate in Habitat projects every year.

HURT: He’s called it a great equalizer, one of the few environments when class and other dividing lines fade away as people work towards a common good. It’s important to note these Carter builds have not just been photo ops. They genuinely worked on houses the whole time. Carter has long been a carpenter. In Nashville, they were working on a house for Tara Morgan and her daughter.

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TARA MORGAN: He has skills. The way that he put those things together and he clearly knows what he’s doing, it’s just amazing. And his wife, Rosalynn, she is painting.

HURT: Morgan was on the site every day with the Carters and other volunteers. She joked that she’s going to call her home the White House. She’d been struggling to make ends meet as a single mom. This home is a game changer.

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MORGAN: It feels like peace. It feels like contentment. It feels like a village of support that I really haven’t known before.

HURT: When asked about his legacy at this Nashville work project, Carter spoke about what he hoped were the themes of his life.

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J CARTER: So I’d say peace and human rights and treating everybody the same has been what I hope will be my legacy, along with Habitat proving that I wanted to help other people.

J CARTER: So I’d say peace and human rights and treating everybody the same has been what I hope will be my legacy, along with Habitat proving that I wanted to help other people.

HURT: When Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter started working with Habitat for Humanity, it was helping thousands of people. In 2018, it helped about 8.7 million in 70 countries. For NPR News, I’m Emma Hurt in Atlanta.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.