By Erin Wiltgen
chh@heraldsun.com;
HILLSBOROUGH -- They're all in this together, so the Orange County School District brought its Hands for Habitat project to the wider community by inviting individuals and businesses to a community build day on Saturday.
Hands for Habitat, a partnership between Orange County Schools and Habitat for Humanity International, gathered community members together to help build a green-certified home in the Fairview community in Hillsborough for homeowners and Orange High School graduates LaToya McAdoo and Trisha Corbett. The event spanned two work shifts between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., each shift limited to 12 volunteers.
"The whole community within the Orange County area is supporting the build," said Jaycee Greenblatt, youth programs coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County. "We thought that it was important that they actually are a part of the process."
While students of Orange High School's construction 2 and 3 classes do the bulk of the building during class time, the community build gave others a chance to help out with smaller tasks, such as painting.
Sports Endeavors employees, Cedar Ridge High School students, members of the Orange County Rotary Club and even Patrick Rhodes, Orange County Schools superintendent, braved rainy weather to help out, said Mat Hamlett, Orange High construction instructor.
"We just want everyone who's involved in the process to be a part of every part of it," Greenblatt said. "We want them to be able to be a part of it on a deeper level."
And while community builds form a cornerstone to any Habitat-sponsored build, getting everyone involved has become an important piece to this particular project, said Patricia Harris, director of career and technology education for Orange County Schools.
"It really is making some connections between schools and between kids and to the community," she said. "That's really what it's all about."
Habitat for Hands has a basis in a longstanding Orange High School construction class project, where students build a house planned by the previous year's drafting students. This year's house was designed by Adam Foster. Before this year, Orange High would auction off the house. But when Habitat approached the school, things changed.
Drafting students had to incorporate Habitat guidelines into their house plans and worry about specifications such as handicap doorways and environmental codes. Construction students now build the house for people they can interact with, making the experience more real, Hamlett said.
"It not only gets my students involved in community things, it actually puts a face on who's going to move into this house," he said.
And the wider Orange County Schools community became involved through the other two aspects of Hands for Habitat: fundraising and education.
"It's been so much fun, seeing these kids," Greenblatt said. "They're hysterical. They really are embracing it. They're loving it."
As far as fundraising, the project plans to raise $35,000 countywide. Sports Endeavors has joined the fundraising effort by pledging to match every dollar raised up to $10,000 as well as producing T-shirts for free. Students and teachers across the community have taken up small activities to raise money for the project, such as Trick or Treating for Habitat.
"It is a strong initiative throughout the school system," Harris said.
In the classroom, teachers have decided to incorporate lessons on homelessness and affordable housing in a variety of ways. Some math students have learned area and square footage by using the Habitat house as an example. In social studies, kids have learned about different housing around the world.
"I think it kind of opens their eyes and allows them to realize what's really a necessity and what's a want," Greenblatt said.
This education is crucial at an early age because it counteracts what human beings naturally are inclined to do, Greenblatt said.
"We weren't born naturally wanting to give," she said. "We're born naturally to get what we need. It's important to learn those skills at a young age, how to give, and to realize that there are other people in the community."
And that aspect, more than the math or the history, is the focus of Hands for Habitat, Harris said.
"It's all about citizenship," she said. "It's not just about the core subjects. We're hoping we're instilling some of the values and ethics in a real world, a hands-on experience. We can talk about it till we're blue in the face, but until you really get out there and do it, that's what really sticks with the kids more than anything.
