College students build Habitat for Humanity homes
during Collegiate Challenge spring break

 

By Tom Moore

 

More than 200 college students from across the country recently spent their spring break in Laredo , building houses for Habitat for Humanity as part of Collegiate Challenge. The students worked for two weeks in March to construct five homes in Río Bravo . Schools participating in the event included Bethel College, Lakeland College, Laredo Community College, Michigan Tech, St. Olaf College, Stonehill College, Texas A&M International University, Tiffen University, University of North Dakota, University of Wisconsin, and Vanderbilt University.

A non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing program, Habitat works to build and rehabilitate houses with the help of homeowner families, through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials. The houses are sold to these partner families at no profit and are financed with affordable, no-interest loans. Homeowners invest hundreds of hours of sweat equity labor into building their Habitat house and the houses of others.

Collegiate Challenge, a 16-year-old Habitat International program, is an alternative spring break for university and college students from around the world. More than 10,000 students worked with Habitat affiliates globally during a four-week period this year.

Over a dozen retirees also helped in the build and served as supervisors during construction. Gary and Connie Grittner of Ft. Pierre , South Dakota , have visited Texas and Laredo several times before. They were in Laredo for a two-week period.

"We came down specifically to help with the college students, to make sure they had appropriate supervision, built a good house, and had a good experience," said Gary Grittner.

The Grittners have been involved with Habitat for Humanity for six years.

"In the spring we always go someplace, Florida or Georgia, someplace in the south where the kids come in lieu of spring break or during spring break," said Grittner. "Instead of drinking beer on the beach somewhere, they come and help with Habitat. I think that's a noble cause, and the least we can do is come down and help supervise."

The Grittners traveled to Laredo in their RV, but Grittner said they don't live in their vehicle.

"Some folks actually are full-timers, they really live in their RVs, but we don't," he said. "We just fire up the RV once every six months. In the fall we usually go and build with adults, someplace in the north, where the weather is cooler, and then in the spring we come and build with Collegiate Challenge."

"We really enjoy it," said Connie Grittner. "It's a good experience, seeing how within one week students learn building skills so quickly. Some of them have never even had a hammer in their hand. They're pretty good now, they're pretty skilled."

"The affiliate has been real good," said Gary Grittner. "We're staying at [Casa Blanca] State Park, and that works well. You just plug in your RV. This afternoon we'll just fold up our cords and head back for South Dakota .

"The two colleges really have done a wonderful job of sending good kids," he said. "There haven't been any discipline problems. Of course, you get a few fingers in the hammer. That's always a problem. If you don't have a couple of bad fingernails you aren't a carpenter. But we haven't had any real problems, which I think speaks well for the students and the institutions they represent.

"We do a lot of volunteer work, particularly with high school and college kids," he said. "We enjoy being around them. They've got a lot of energy, and there's always something new happening with them."

A group of full-time RVers also assisted in the Habitat build. Known as caravaners, these retirees live in their RVs and travel full-time. The group working in Laredo learned of the build through their RV organization the Escapees, said full-time RVer Joyce Allen.

"The Escapees have a home office and they put out a newsletter a couple or three times a year, and they have a list in there of all the Habitat for Humanity builds that are asking for RV caravaners to come and work," said Allen. "You look, you see which ones you want to go to, and you go. This site had room for six RVs, so there are 12 of us here. We always go and stay two weeks."

The Allens have participated in previous Habitat builds.

"This is my husband's and my fourth build. We've built in Washington , New Mexico , Florida , and now in Texas ," said Allen.

"When we got here this was a bare slab," she said, indicating the nearly completed house, "so it's a lot of progress. The rain slowed us down a little the first week, and the mud was interesting, but the kids who have been here working have just been great."

Elaine Palmer, originally from Ohio , is another caravaner who assisted in the spring break build.

"We've enjoyed working with the team that we have, and we made quite a bit of progress in the last two weeks," she said. "We started with a slab and we now have something that looks like a house. We've enjoyed having the kids around."

Like Allen, Palmer has worked on Habitat builds before.

"We've done two in Fredricksburg , Texas , and two in Charleston , South Carolina , one in Michigan , one in Branson, and one in Kentucky ," she said.

Carol Sherwood, director of Habitat for Humanity of Webb County, praised the results of the spring break labor.

"Collegiate Challenge has produced a lot of work here on the site," she said. "The students have done a phenomenal job."

Sarah Espeland, a 20-year old junior from Bethel College , was leader of the Bethel construction group, responsible for the group's finances and logistics. She had participated in a previous spring break Habitat build in Jacksonville Beaches , Florida .

" Bethel had never been to Laredo before," she said. "We came down here not knowing what to expect, having no idea where we were going or what it was really going to be like, because we knew that this site was a little bit different than other ones. But it's been amazing. The differences are awesome.

"When we came down, from day one, the enthusiasm and the excitement they showed for us to be here was like nothing we had ever seen before," said Espeland. "They had entertainment for us, they cooked dinner, we had the fiesta, and I've just been so touched by how much they loved having us here and how much they appreciated everything that we've done. They even made a plaque for us, and I don't think that's ever been done for a Habitat group before. There's a lot of variety, so there isn't one person doing the same thing all week. We've all loved being here, just building houses and having a good time."

Erik Haugen, 21 and a junior at Bethel , agreed.

"It's been an amazing experience," he said. "I've done construction for a number of years with my dad at home, but I've never done Habitat for Humanity. The people here have been great. The people who've been leading the team I've been working with have been phenomenal. Carol has provided anything we needed. And the churches in the community are just great. It's exceeded all my expectations, blew them away. I'd love to do it again."

April Graves, 21 and a junior from St. Olaf College , had worked with Habitat once before in Minnesota , but not through Collegiate Challenge. She was impressed by the experience as well as by Laredo 's multicultural atmosphere.

" Laredo has been a wonderful town," she said. "It's really neat how there's a mix of both cultures. It's almost like a whole other country down here. We've had a really good time working on the houses. They've treated us really well here. It's been really neat to see how the whole community can come together and help out Habitat in cooking or giving their service, helping build or give materials. That's been really neat to see."

"This is my first Habitat experience," said Lauren Lucas, a 21-year-old senior at St. Olaf. "It's been really neat to see everybody come together like this. I didn't know that there would be another school, but it's been neat to see how we interact. I guess I didn't know what to expect, but it's been really neat seeing everyone working together."

The cultural environment of Laredo , however, was not as much of a novelty to Lucas, who had spent the previous semester in India .

"I was looking for something to do over spring break that was volunteer service but also something different, because I'm really into traveling now," she said. "It does feel like a different place down here. I really love it. It's inspired me to take Spanish and travel around down south here more."

But did the build inspire Lucas to get into home construction?

"Actually it has! I do want to build my own house when I'm older," she said. "And these RV caravaners, that what I'd love to do when I'm retired -- travel the country. A dream of mine is to see all the national parks. So I could do that and build homes. That would be really neat."