Meet us Monday: Daisy Buitrago

Olivia Bowler | August 28, 2017

This post is part of a series to help you get to know the many faces at the Habitat Wake ReStores. Check back every other Monday to meet a new face and read a little about the people who make up our great team.

Name and Title: Daisy, Procurement Ambassador

Home town: Raleigh

Current town: Morrisville

When did you start working at Habitat Wake? November 2013

What is your favorite thing about working for Habitat? I get paid to make the world a better place! I hated working traditional retail where upper management coached employees to constantly sell meaningless goods or credit cards to customers. Habitat's organizational values and mission are closely aligned with my own personal values and that makes a huge difference!

What does your typical work day look like? Majority of my work week, I am out on one of our 26-foot trucks, picking up donations from homes and businesses all over Wake County. The day starts with a route of 8 to 12 pickups and my partner and I drive around making pickups in the morning and afternoon. I love it because every day and every pickup is different and I enjoy strategizing how to organize and stack donations to ensure we have room for all the pickups in the day, like Tetris. Then we take all our donations to the assigned store and unload the truck alongside employees and volunteers. I also appreciate how fit I am from all the heavy lifting at work. No need to put aside time or money for a gym membership here!

What do you do in your spare time? I am a very busy person outside of habitat! I serve communion to hospital bound Catholics at Rex Hospital every month, I mentor Jobs for Life 8-week classes twice a year, I have worked as a precinct official for every election since 2013. Actually, I just started a new opportunity with the Wake County Board of Elections and now I am also teaching a 3-hour training course for all precinct officials starting this month! I am always creating, restoring and upcycling items for myself, friends or for my Etsy store. I always have 2-3 books I am reading in between all my activities and fun. Needless to say, I rarely sleep!

Do you have any pets or children? I have one fur baby, Sinnamon aka Sinn, who just turned 6 years old. I've had my dog since she was 6 weeks old! She is full of energy, always trying to distract me to play with her.

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What are three items on your bucket list? Take a holy pilgrimage to Israel, learn to Scuba, and learn to blow glass.

Dream vacation: I think a dream vacay for me would have to be a month long at least. It doesn't even matter where I go or don't go. I value my time and I always need more to accomplish my never ending list of goals. I have already had fun vacations in Honduras (with Habitat!) and the Bahamas. However if I could have a month long vacay and go somewhere cool... thats the ultimate dream vacation!

Hidden talent? I weigh 100lbs and I can safely deadlift 75lbs, so needless to say I surprise majority of donors when I arrive to procure their donations. Never judge books by their covers!

Favorite piece you’ve seen or purchased in the ReStore: I actually bought a small storage cabinet recently that had a good shape and totally upcycled it into a sewing notions cabinet with vintage cookbook ads and graphics decoupaged on drawer fronts and cabinet top. Its my current favorite, but I have many because majority of my household is composed of ReStore items or things I made using ReStore items!

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