Lindy Harshberger is one of those people who really knows how to go out and make a difference in the world.
The Ocean Beach resident will travel with Habitat for Humanity to Maharashtra, India, where she will join thousands of volunteers from around the world to help build housing for local families in need. Harshberger will work alongside former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosyln, on the 23rd annual Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP).
A recent graduate of the University of Santa Monica with a master’s in Spiritual Psychology, Harshberger said that after living such a full life she was looking for a way to give back. Her work for the past two years with inmates at Valley State Prison for Women inspired her to volunteer to help those in need around the world.
Every six months, as part of the master’s program, Lindy would visit the prison and conduct communication workshops to help the inmates deal with incarceration. She said connecting with those women helped her realize the wonderful freedom she enjoys.
“Some of these women were [jailed] in their youth “” since 19 or 20 “” and they will never live outside prison. And some have children and grandchildren who they’ll never have a relationship with,” Harshberger said.
In order to establish a similar bond during her upcoming trip, Harshberger plans to share photographs of her friends and family with the families she will work with in India, and then place them in a ceremonial fashion between the bricks or somewhere safe, she said.
“I had to do something to say we’re connected.” Harshberger said.
As a great-grandmother to two great-grandchildren, a widow and a breast cancer survivor, Harshberger said she wants to go to India because she feels very privileged and wants to give back in someway. She said she still wonders why they picked her since her online application was mostly blank for lack of construction experience.
In spite of her limited engineering skills, Harshberger’s life experience should serve her well as a crew leader of five volunteers. She said she looks forward to the challenge and that her worst fear would be being able to find a decent restroom. For a week, Harshberger will be helping the JCWP build affordable housing. She also wants to pass out pencils and paper for school children. After completing her work commitment, Harshberger plans to meet up with a friend and spend a couple of weeks traveling around the country.
Born in Minnesota, Harshberger’s parents moved to Ocean Beach when she was 8 years old. They worked for Ryan Aeronautical Company during World War II and eventually purchased a home in El Cajon. Harshberger graduated from El Cajon High and attended California Western University, now known as Point Loma Nazarene University before transferring to SDSU.
She received her degree after 15 years of part time classes “” all while raising a family and working. And in 1990, she received her MBA from the University of Redlands.
Harshberger has since returned to Ocean Beach, where she said she loves the sense of community and belonging the neighborhood provides.
She said her most recent degree helped her combine Eastern and Western medicinal methods to help fight off cancer and that time will tell if she made the right decision, though the cancer hasn’t returned yet.