Florala

Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Kim West

Media Credit: Kim West

Media Credit: Kim West

Media Credit: Kim West

Day One (Sunday, March 25)

Eleven members of our group, the UNA chapter of Habitat for Humanity (HFH), met at noon for the journey to Lexington, Kentucky, the site of our Collegiate Challenge spring break trip. According to the UNA HFH Web site, Collegiate Challenge is a week-long building trip that allows members to participate in an affiliate build in another state. In past years, our chapter has built homes in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida.

Before turning off the lights, I asked Amy why she chose Collegiate Challenge, and she said, "It gives you a positive thing to do, and it's a good way to spend spring break."

Day Two (Monday, March 26)

By 8 a.m., the AmeriCorps van was leading our caravan to the home office of Lexington HFH, which built 18 homes last year. We received a "de-briefing" and the week's schedule, and met the project manager, Adam, and the construction assistant, Travis, who earned the nickname Sparky by the end of the day. They took us to the shop, where we unloaded trucks full of trash, including a lovely rusty toilet, and helped round up power tools.

Then we headed to a house remodeling project the AmeriCorps group had been working on, and we painted a coat of primer on the ceilings since the previous homeowner smoked in the house. Some of us spent the rest of the day scraping up brown linoleum flooring, while the rest of the group nailed vinyl siding to the house exterior and added another layer of primer to the interior.

At 3 p.m. the site manager, Jim, stopped our work day. By then most of us were covered in primer, dust and flooring glue and dreaming of a shower.

Day Three (Tuesday, March 27)

We went to the Habitat main office again to work in the shop area, where we stacked lumber and scraps on pallets and then we followed Travis to another house. This was a new house in its early stages, so this morning's task was to shovel and rake gravel to prepare the foundation for concrete.

After learning how to "walk our shovels with gravel," we went back to the same house we worked on yesterday and painted, sided and scraped up floor glue.

Day Four (Wednesday, March 28)

Christopher and Alan measured and sawed hundreds of pieces of wood for tresses, while Shina, Amy, Hitomi and I cut plywood to fit the back of the tresses and then we nailed them together. Meanwhile, Joel, Sihya, Sabrina and Stefanie made a few large boxes out of pallets and plywood for scrap wood.

Day Five (Thursday, March 29)

Today was our last work day, and we worked in the Lexington HFH ReStore, which is similar to a thrift store. But instead of clothes, toys and books, it sells grout, doors and appliances. Part of the group worked on stainless steel countertops, while the rest of us covered the counter walls.

In the afternoon, most of us went to a house that was being stripped of anything that could be sold in the ReStore, including a heavy fireplace that Alan and Christopher pulled out of the wall. Loosening door frame molding with a crowbar was surprisingly therapeutic. Then we headed to another house that's going to be torn down because of the local zoning laws.

Before this trip, I had never traveled during spring break. It was definitely worth losing a few shifts at Wal-Mart to get away from Florence and help the Lexington HFH. I loved working alongside fellow students who didn't mind getting their hands dirty. I highly recommend this trip to any student who enjoys community service and wants to go out of town for a week for less than a hundred dollars.

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