A gifted carpenter, designer and respected local business owner, Laura Dalzell was a highly sought-after professional as the owner of the Lexington company Cabinets & Designs for more than 30 years. But Dalzell, who passed away from cancer in 2022, was never one to use her skills solely for her own benefit. She was an extremely committed volunteer for Lexington Habitat for Humanity for nearly as long as she owned her own business.
In her work with that organization, Dalzell’s generous spirit not only gained her the admiration of many but also meaningfully contributed to the lives of more than 100 families whose homes she helped build over three decades. Today, Dalzell’s husband, Mike Graves, is partnering with Lexington Habitat for Humanity on a memorial build that will pay tribute to her long history of service to the organization.
Part of a large family in Garden City, New York, Laura Dalzell learned to work with her hands at an early age.
“She was one of 11 children — her father basically started handing everybody tools because they would run out of room and need to build another or add a bathroom or something,” recalled Graves, with a laugh. “All the kids learned to do things on their own.”
A trailblazer from a young age, Dalzell was the first female graduate of the construction management program at Southern Illinois University, where she specialized in carpentry and “green” architecture. Soon after opening her business Cabinets & Designs in 1991, Dalzell began sharing her time and expertise with Lexington’s Habitat for Humanity and was instrumental in the establishment of its Women Build program.
Founded in Georgia in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is a national organization that builds and repairs homes to provide safe and affordable housing for lower-income community members. Lexington Habitat for Humanity was incorporated in 1986 and has since served nearly 600 families through new home construction or home repairs, with selected families assuming a low- or no-interest mortgage payments and contributing sweat equity to their own home as well as other builds. With this focus on construction, as well as lending a helping hand to others in need, the work was a natural fit for Dalzell’s skills and interests.
The thought of families not having housing options is something that touched Dalzell deeply, according to her friend Diane James, whom she met though Habitat around the time of Lexington’s second Habitat build. The two women, along with a third friend, Jean Cravens, and others, were instrumental in launching the Women Build program within Lexington’s Habitat branch.
“We had worked on typical Habitat builds, and then we decided to do the first Women Build,” said James, adding that when she first got involved with the organization, she was a stay-at-home mom of four with no construction experience but a strong interest in learning.
When the three women were first starting with Habitat builds, they started to notice women would regularly come to work on the builds, “but they really ran around cleaning things up and weren’t getting into the actual building of the house,” James said. “We saw a need to provide an open opportunity for the women to learn to build.”
From the start, the program engaged women of all ages, from at-risk teenagers to older women from federal prison to retirees, said Cravens.
“One was a retired professor who, at age 80, bought her first pair of blue jeans so she could work on the house,” she added.
Both friends reflected on how, from the onset of the Women Build project, essential Dalzell’s carpentry, design and building skills proved to be for everyone involved.
“It started with her teaching,” James said, “then it moved on to building.”
Dalzell was patient and generous when it came to sharing her skills, Cravens added, and was “very helpful to anybody who wanted to learn.”
“She helped empower many, many women to do things that they never thought they could do,” she said.
In addition to working well with volunteers, Dalzell was very skilled when it came to working with the families involved. “The homeowner was always included,” Cravens said. “By the time they finished the house, they knew what was done, how it was done and the inner workings of their home.”
While Lexington Habitat for Humanity has organized 15 Women Builds since the program launched, Dalzell touched hundreds of families over the years with her service to the organization. In addition to working on more than 100 builds during her 30 years of service to the organization, she also served on the Lexington Habitat for Humanity’s board, from 1994-99 and again from 2015-20.
Laura’s background in green architecture also influenced her, and she was committed to reuse and recycling. She made sure that Habitat ReStore had the opportunity to have access to any cabinets taken out of her client’s houses, James said.
Lexington Habitat for Humanity hopes to connect Dalzell’s upcoming memorial build with another Women Build project, to be included in the organization’s 2023-24 schedule. In the meantime, fundraising has begun for the memorial build, with approximately $150,000 needed to cover the total costs of a Habitat home.
While this is not the first memorial build for Lexington Habitat for Humanity, according to interim development manager Katie St. Clair, builds of this nature are rare — undertaken to honor only the most dedicated contributors to the mission of the organization. It’s criteria that Dalzell meets, unquestionably.
A trailblazer from a young age, Dalzell was the first female graduate of the construction management program at Southern Illinois University, where she specialized in carpentry and “green” architecture. Photo by Mark Reynolds
“Laura was an inspiration for the staff and volunteers at Lexington Habitat for Humanity and a driving force for our Women Build program,” St. Clair said. “We are honored to have the opportunity to dedicate this build in her memory.”
When asked how Dalzell would feel about having a memorial build as tribute to her, James admitted she might be a little embarrassed.
“I think she would say she doesn’t deserve it,” James said. “But I think it would touch her.”
Cravens added, “Knowing that another family would have a house because of her, I think she’d be tickled to death.”
As Graves has been contacting Dalzell’s colleagues, family and friends about the memorial build, he has been reminded of the admiration that so many felt for her.
“Everybody had the same feeling about Laura — she was such a giver, she was full of energy, she was always positive and always smiling,” he said. “I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.”
“She was the picture of humility,” he added. “She was incredibly successful, but she never bragged about it. There’s this principle of doing things for others without expecting anything in return — and even deeper than that, not telling anybody about it. That’s what she did. She never told anybody about it. She just did the work.”
TO DONATE:
The Laura Dalzell Tribute Fund is seeking to raise a total of $150,000, with $24,835 having been raised at the time of this issue's publication (late March). For more on how to donate, visit this link: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/laudalmem