chh@heraldsun.com; 419-6654
HILLSBOROUGH -- Through rain and stormy weather, Orange High School construction students trudged from bus to build site with perhaps some water in their boots but also with a spring in their step.
The house that the students have been building since the school year began is different than the typical class construction project, which students normally build on school property and later auction off. This year, Orange High School has joined with the broader Orange County Schools community to form a partnership with Habitat for Humanity called Hands for Habitat.
And the students seem to have thrown heart and soul into the project despite the gloom.
"I saw several of my students shivering," said Mat Hamlett, Orange High construction teacher. "But they were happy to be there. They weren't worried about getting mud in their shoes. They wore it like a proud badge."
And though weather has made for tough going, building a Habitat house has made certain aspects of construction easier, said Travis Moize, a senior construction student. Actually meeting the homeowners helped make the project more of a reality for many of the students.
"I feel pretty good," Moize said. "This makes a difference. It makes their life a little bit easier."
A special touch for the project lies in the fact that homeowners LaToya McAdoo and Trisha Corbett actually graduated from Orange High themselves.
"We're kind of keeping it in the Orange County Schools family, so to speak," said Hamlett, an Orange High graduate as well.
As dedicated as they are, the students' hard work has paid off. Although Habitat employees laid the foundation, construction students have erected walls, built the roof, laid shingles, installed windows and put in doors -- all work Hamlett expected to take until Christmas. This classifies the house as "dry," meaning the workers can focus on the inside without getting wet.
Following age-old construction tradition, the students put an evergreen bough on the peak of the roof to mark the house's dry status.
"A lot of people think we're celebrating Christmas early," Hamlett said. "It just signals that we've reached one of those milestones."
And lucky they reached that mark early, because rainy weather on Saturday would have rained out Hands for Habitat's first community build had community volunteers needed to work outside.
"Although it was cold and horrible outside, it was fun and warm and great inside," said Susan Bourner, director of partner relations for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County. "They were able to prep and actually complete the priming of the entire interior of the house."
But the work went far beyond mere construction. Bourner washed paint brushes and brought lunch for the hungry workers. Orange High's family consumer science classes made cookies and muffins for people to eat throughout the day.
"There were a lot of hands that were involved that weren't necessarily on site," Hamlett said. "That's the whole thing about Habitat. You don't have to know about driving nails and building stuff. There's so many other volunteer opportunities."
And the Orange County schools not involved in the physical building of the house have taken that to heart through fund-raising efforts and education.
"Everyone has come on board: the community, the students, the teachers," Bourner said. "How uplifting that everyone sees what's happened and wants to be a part of it."
