The beaches of Cancun, the cool waters of the Dominican Republic, the comforts of home -- all may be alluring destinations for spring break. But 23 Georgetown University community-service minded students chose to spend time on a construction site in Valdosta, Ga.
The group participated in the annual Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge through the university’s
Center for Social Justice, Research, Teaching and Service. For seven days, the Hoyas endured their share of sunburns, bruises from hammered fingers and moments of comic relief on the work site; all to bring the joy of owning a home to a deserving family.
For
Gretchen Edwards (C’09), contributing time and effort toward making a family’s dream a reality has been the reason she’s continued to spend her alternative spring breaks building homes through Habitat for Humanity for the past four years.
View pictures from the trip
“I come from a really wonderful home that has shaped me and given me so many opportunities,” she says. “I know that a lot of people don’t come from homes like mine. Habitat for Humanity addresses the idea of home (as) a place to start and create a strong foundation for a child, a family and a community.”
As a Habitat veteran, she served as trip leader, making sure her fellow Georgetown students were prepared for the daily rigors of constructing a home.
Each day started at 7 a.m., allowing the students just enough time to wake up and prepare for a full day’s work at the construction site on Martin Luther King Jr. Street. After reaching the work site at 8 a.m., the Hoya crew had breakfast provided by members of the Valdosta community and were lifting, sawing and hammering away by 8:30 a.m.
“We worked from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. alongside Habitat staff employees, local community volunteers and occasionally, habitat recipients,” recalls
Alysa Hannon (SFS’09).
The students were tasked with building a small one-level four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in a week. Subcontractors came in later to perform the electrical wiring, plumbing and other finishing touches.
With a huge gap in experience, the mostly novice Georgetown crew worked with local Valdosta volunteers – many retired construction workers who helped the students get their bearings on site. “Something like hammering a nail into a piece of wood is a lot harder than it looks and requires, actually, a great deal of skill,” Hannon says.
But construction skills aren’t all the students learned from the volunteers. Embedded between breakfast and lunch were hours of work, play and conversation about everything from the families and backgrounds of the older Habitat volunteers to a seemingly endless supply of jokes that sparked outbursts of frequent laughter throughout the site.
“The construction site seemed to be littered with interesting characters whose stories were dropped in pieces between pieces of wood, sawdust and water breaks,” Hannon says.
Jena Hood, volunteer coordinator for Habitat’s Valdosta-Lowndes County chapter, says the program is a success because of volunteers such as the students, but a strong relationship with the Valdosta community also contributes heavily to the number of homes built each year. Since 1987, the chapter is responsible for building more than 150 house -- giving shelter to nearly 600 people.
“We simply could not do what we do without our local volunteers,” Hood says of the men and women who not only worked with the students on the construction site, but those who cooked meals for them and made sure they had a place to sleep at night.
“The hospitality of the local church communities was overwhelming and allowed us to catch a glimpse into the lives of these people on a very real and personal level,” Hannon says.
The days were filled with hard work for the students, but by late afternoon the students would head for Valdosta State University or a hot shower.
A different church provided dinner each night before they headed back to their cots for the night in one of the churches.
Although there was a great deal of work, the student volunteers did find some time to play. On the way to Valdosta, they embark on an adventure to watch alligators float through the Okefenokee Swamp. They celebrated a fellow volunteer’s birthday with a night bowling and competed in an impromptu “Habitat Olympics.”
Driven by a myriad of impulses to spend spring break helping others, students pointed to the Jesuit ideals –
cura personalis, or care of the whole person; contemplation in action; and being women and men for others – as a reason to spend their break performing Habitat duties.
Jillian Ugol (MSB’12) says her motivation to participate in the alternative spring break trip had as much to do with wanting to help others as being around those who also want to volunteer.
“I love the people that go on these trips, and I love the genuineness of everyone,” she says. “People are there because they share my interests and because they really want to be there.”
