As many of you may know, TurboSquid organized a Habitat for Humanity build on the weekend before SIGGRAPH 2009. Squids, Autodesk employees and 3D artists put down their laptops and picked up tools to help rebuild a damaged home in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. We even had a group of students from Minnesota drive down to pitch in after seeing an update on our Twitter feed! It was incredibly hot and the work was hard, but everyone commented on what a fantastic time they had.

This past Friday, the house was dedicated – and the new owner Nikkia Clark and her family were given the keys to their new home. Nikkia works at Lowe’s as a cashier and customer service return agent. We found out she was required to put in 350 hours of sweat equity into the project; 250 on another Habitat site, and 100 on her own. During the ceremony, she expressed how grateful she was to everyone who helped build her home.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather, we got to meet one of the sponsors of the house, The House that Faux Built, and got to see their handiwork on the interior walls that our team helped construct. The artists from Faux House spent 3 days prior to the dedication ceremony turning plain walls into a personalized experience that should be enjoyed for years to come.

In the pics, you’ll see that there is still a bit of work left to do (carpets and some flooring), But Nikkia told us she expects to move in right around Christmas time. What a great way to start the new year. Seeing how far the house had come after our two days of effort was really gratifying for those of us who participated, and it made us all look forward to future volunteer work like this in 2010.