Over Spring Break, a group of ten students and two faculty chaperones spent a week volunteering at Habitat for Humanity’s Sea Land location in Charleston, South Carolina. From learning how to use power tools properly to hammering protective house wrap and even completing the roofing of a shed, our MBS students and faculty, Ms. Andrea Deventer, Performing Arts, and Mr. Zachary Mazouat, Art & Design, diligently worked together to build a new home for a local family in need.
Sea Island Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing affordable and lasting housing in addition to critical home repairs. They rely on the work of volunteers and, as a result, are able to provide reduced prices for these houses. Prospective homeowners must stay on a waiting list, meet a credit score minimum, and invest 300-400 hours of their own time at work sites to qualify for one of the homes.
Along with building houses, Habitat for Humanity also provides critical home repairs to low income families. These repairs include adding wheelchair ramps, restoring windows or doors, or repairing a leaky roof. With Habitat for Humanity’s commitment to helping others, these repairs take place at non-Habitat built homes and are free of charge as they are funded by donations.
The typical work day In Charleston lasted from 8am to 4pm with an hour-long lunch break at 12pm. This schedule repeated for a total of four work days. After arriving at the worksite for the first day, the group was divided into multiple sections to maximize productivity by working on specific projects. Students and faculty worked alongside college students from both Purdue University and Indiana University and Habitat worksite managers.
These specific project groups included shed roofing, porch installation, siding placement, hurricane strap installation, the hammering of house wrap, and more. Many MBS students were involved in the porch installation and were tasked to build an approximately 40-foot deck, which is currently the largest deck this location for Habitat for Humanity has built.
While two people would work on measuring gaps, cutting new strips of wood with a power saw, and finally placing them down, others would straighten the row (using blocks of wood, hammers, wood chips, etc) before drilling each plank down. Each row was about 40 feet long and was composed of multiple pieces of wood. The substantial size of this deck meant students had to ensure the wood was not too close to the house and was even on both sides of the deck. After the deck was successfully completed in three full work days, students moved on to join other groups with various tasks.
After all of the hard work, it was extremely rewarding to see ladders move onto the porch to work on roofing and even more rewarding when our last group photo was taken on top of it.
MBS was only one of the many school groups onsite. Although schools seemed to separate off into their respective groups at first, we quickly developed a sense of camaraderie with our common goal of building a house for those in need. We began to build our rapport after spending hours working, eating lunch together, and chatting while building. It was an incredible experience to work around others with the same shared goal to help the community and we learned a lot from each other about construction, college life, and more. The unexpected opportunity to bond with other volunteers over this valuable community service project shed light on the importance of our hard work and our dedication to teamwork.
Although the main focus of the trip was on this extremely rewarding work experience, we also were able to have some Spring Break fun. We spent an entire day in the beautiful city of Charleston where we were able to tour the College of Charleston and shop. After exploring the vibrant streets, we made our way to the Charleston City Market where we were able to experience the many incredible items the city had to offer. In addition to our shopping sprees, we were also able to relax on the beautiful beaches of South Carolina where we took walks, swam in the ocean, and encountered countless starfish. After working tirelessly for hours, and seeing our hard work pay off right before our eyes, we were able to spend our nights relaxing knowing that we worked hard and were ready to continue the next morning.
Not only did our group return to MBS knowing how to install roofing on sheds or how to operate a power saw, but also we left South Carolina with a sense of pride after making lasting, affordable housing available to Charleston. We both enjoyed and appreciated the experience of the construction work, teamwork, and camaraderie. We highly recommend anyone considering next year’s trip to sign up immediately. You don’t need experience, just a willingness to learn and desire to help.
