Students build over spring break
Students work on a Habitat house in Florida during break
Kyle Millington
Issue date: 3/28/07 Section: News
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Fourteen students and two faculty members from The College Saint Rose found an alternative way of spending the week off, by venturing into West Palm Beach, Florida. This was no ordinary, relaxing trip to the beach, however, as the participants were hard at work helping build and paint houses for Habitat for Humanity.
Whether it was putting up windows, sawing wood, working on the roof, or madly nailing parts of the house together, they found themselves working hard to see to it that one family would realize their dream of moving into a house that they never thought they would have.
"It was very rewarding," said Shannon Dupuis, a junior. "It made you feel good, and I made new friends."
The participants saw this trip as a great opportunity to give something back by giving up relaxing on their spring break and working hard, long days constructing and preparing a safe home that could possibly withstand the force of a hurricane.
"I saw posters, then I talked to Ellen, [the student leader of the trip] and thought it would be nice," said Nina Vosoughi, a sophomore.
Starting at 8:30am almost every day, the volunteers would all drive to the construction site, where they would gather all of the tools and equipment and start working on the many constructing tasks. Around noon, the students would break for lunch, then resume working until about 3:00pm.
This was not the first trip for group leader, Ellen Donoaghey, who has volunteered for Habitat before.
"This is my second year," Donoaghey said. "I was invited by Ken Scott [Director of community service at St Rose] to be the student leader. I reconsidered my initial refusal after going to a panel hosted by Jessica Phelps."
At first, students and didn't know what to expect from the trip to Florida.
"I was anxious and excited at the same time," Donoaghey said. "I thought the trip was better than planned."
There were some really satisfying moments of the trip, including painting one of the houses with Saint Rose President, Mark Sullivan and a warming speech from the founder of Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller.
It wasn't just working on a house, however, as there were relaxing points when the volunteers would go to the beach, the Zoo, and even a day trip to Miami.
Despite the hard work, the students found themselves laughing, cracking jokes, enjoying themselves, helping one another with the building and establishing some great relationships.
A good example of the new relationships they had made, was when their train from Miami was shut down for a few hours. Students found ways to amuse themselves and make jokes instead of complaining about their situation.
Scott took on the job of being the spring break advisor for his 7th year. He was relieved at the end of the week as to how the students made progress over the week.
"My initial thought was how can I put a good team together of different people," said Scott. "I thought we met that challenge."
The group of students pulled together to help each other throughout the week and really enjoyed themselves at the same time.
Whether it was helping get that tough nail into the wood, or relaxing on the beach, or even eating chocolate chip pancakes at Ihop, the team bonded together and were able to help others by creating something truly special.
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