La Fortuna, Renton’s Habitat for Humanity site, wrapped-up its 12th annual Together We Build event this past weekend.

The multifaith community service project is held around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which is the initial motivation behind forming the Together We Build project, participants and officials at La Fortuna said.

This year’s event was Sept. 19- 21 at the Habitat for Humanity development, 17286 127th Ave. S.E., Renton.

Together We Build is an interfaith coalition of Christians, Jews and Muslims seeking to find common ground and learn from one another as they work together to build homes for low-income families in King County.

“If you think of how many faith communities there are in King County, it’s really hard to make that connection with just a few staff members,” said Mary Martin.

Martin is Habitat for Humanity’s director of foundations and community engagement for Seattle-King County.

“So to have them out there recruiting people themselves and always growing the group, they are doing that work,” Martin said. “It’s like an extension of Habitat and they raise money.”

During the past 12 years, Together We Build’s efforts have raised more than $500,000 for Habitat’s affordable home building program in King County.

In Habitat’s history, Martin said, the organization has worked with mostly Christian congregations. The nonprofit’s involvement with this annual event has broadened their scope and put an emphasis on working with multifaith organizations.

“And this was a real instigator in broadening that and not only in Habitat here locally, but I believe Together We Build was one of the first interfaith groups in all of Habitat’s affiliates nationwide,” Marin said.

At the time, it was a little unusual because Habitat wanted to hold on to its Christian history, she said.

“So it kind of shook things up a little bit,” Martin said. “Since then, I would say Habitat International has made a huge initiative to embrace interfaith.”

The Together We Build event is not only about building homes, but about sharing. Participants gather together during the project for lunch, which is an important part of the event. Teams of cooks from the faith communities prepare the meals to suit each religion’s requirements. Lunchtime discussions range from religious topics to chitchat about families and careers.

Volunteer Robina Qureshi learned that a Lebanese recipe is similar to meatloaf during her involvement. It’s the little things like that which break down barriers, she said.

“I love the fact that it’s the interfaith communities that are part of Together We Build,” Qureshi said. “I think that’s what I feel so proud of, it makes me want to learn who I am as a person, first of all. And then, also want to learn what I could not learn outside of this experience.”

She was one of about 50 volunteers, who participated in this year’s event. Each day, people from Aldersgate United Methodist, Bothell United Methodist, Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) and the Kenmore Ward, Bothell Stake – Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – all come out to help.

Volunteer Dave Sanford was motivated to participate after he saw a religious leader from the Muslim community speaking at a Jewish temple at a 9/11 anniversary event.

“And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty powerful stuff,’” Sanford said. “And then our church got involved with it, and it kind of grew from there.”

He is a member of Aldersgate United Methodist and it’s his 11th year participating in Together We Build.

Last Sunday, the group held an interfaith service in Kirkland. The service is an integral part of the annual event, where Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy share messages. The service is open to members of all faiths.

This is the second year that Together We Build has taken place at La Fortuna. A total of 41 Habitat-built townhouses are planned there.

“It helps the community to have a goal to build-up the community rather than just hand something off,” said Qureshi. “Because the whole program is about building the community and providing something the community can work toward. So that’s very

attractive.”