From the Winter 2025 print newsletter
February ushers in U.N. World Interfaith Harmony Week, an annual celebration of interfaith projects and cooperation by people of goodwill. During this week, Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity is holding our 4th interfaith dialogue, “United We Build: Together Building Homes, Building Lives,” on Sunday, Feb. 2, from 3-5 p.m. at Berger Hall on the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus. The event will feature three panelists, followed by facilitated, small-group discussions. Participants of all ages are welcome.
Later in the month, on Sat., Feb. 22, we’ll hold our 4th Interfaith Build for Unity (IBU) home dedication for Isxel and her family. The celebration will take place at The Ridge at Sand Creek, 868 Bidwell Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80915, at 10:30 a.m.
Both of these events bring together people from a variety of faith traditions, as well as people of no faith. Their common ground is the desire to love others and support affordable homeownership.
“This group here, it doesn’t seem like anybody’s above or below anyone,” says Sandra Walking Eagle, a Lakota Sioux representative and IBU subcommittee member. “These people just reach out from positivity and try to make things happen, and I love that about them.”
She centers her own involvement in the IBU in her cultural values as well as her faith tradition.
“My name is Sandra Walking Eagle,” she says. “My mother was Veronica Walking Eagle, and my grandparents were Felix and Elizabeth Walking Eagle. They were enrolled in the Rosebud Sioux tribe, and so am I. I’m not a representative for all our people; I just speak as a Lakota woman practicing the Lakota tradition for over 45 years. I’m a Native American advocate, but above all I stand for love, peace, and understanding among all people. And that’s real important to me.”
She became involved with the IBU as a representative of Native American women in El Paso County and along the Front Range, she says. “We’re all working together as a common goal of lifting people up, even if it’s one family at a time,” she continues. “To see the look on a single mom’s face and the joy of her children seeing their new bedroom when they move from a cockroach-infected apartment that they could barely move around in, to see that that woman or family was uplifted.”
Walking Eagle recalls attending the 3rd IBU home dedication for Jessica in February 2024. “Just to see her son’s face, to see him beaming and her just having a calmness about her,” she recalls.
“The situation she talked about, she came from a place you just don’t want to raise your children,” Walking Eagle continues. “But she was so happy and relieved and grateful—it makes you warm inside!”
She encourages anyone interested in community involvement to check out Pikes Peak Habitat’s interfaith
programs. And she notes that many spiritual traditions share a common emphasis on caring for others—and people who live these beliefs come together for the IBU.
“There are what, 500 religions in the world? And most all the good ones talk of tolerance and understanding and wisdom to learn, but above all is love,” Walking Eagle says. “When you come into an organization and say, ‘Where can I help?’ and they immediately welcome you, you know you’re in the right place.”
