Habitat to break ground on two-week project involving Southeast students

Habitat for Humanity leaders will break ground Saturday for a home that will be built mostly by Southeast Missouri State University students on its campus, all within a two-week time frame.

Construction is expected to begin on the parking lot near 920 Broadway on March 7 and end March 21 when the entire house is loaded on a trailer enroute to its new address at 1640 Main St. Ground breaking will take place at 11:30 a.m.

The home will be built for Cape Girardeau residents John and Ashley Sterling and their four children.

Though the task may seem impossible, Habitat for Humanity President T. Robin Cole believes the two-week effort is realistic thanks to the commitment from students, volunteers, city officials and businesses. If finished by late March it would shatter the previous record of a build in the shortest amount of time, when members of LaCroix Church completed a Habitat home from Sept. 26 to Nov. 6, 2006.

"So many have come together to build this house for this family," Cole said. "It's the most remarkable thing and a tremendous example of what a community can do for those in need."

Students will work on the Build Southeast project for as long as 12 hours every day, including during the university's spring break, which begins March 16. The interior of the home will be finished once the structure is installed on its new basement foundation.

"We left three full days of additional slack in the schedule to allow for unexpected to delays," Cole said. "We build these same houses fundamentally over and over again with small variations, so we believe it is possible to do this in this small amount of time given the pool of 10,000 students and 1,000 faculty members that are available. Given that we're pretty far up the learning curve on this house, we know how much time it takes to build it."

Kerry Wallaert, area coordinator for the Office of Residence Life, said that for more than two years students, faculty and staff have traveled to such communities as Evansville, Ind. and Greensboro, Ala., to build Habitat homes. Wallaert said this year's build allows students to participate in the effort without needing to raise money for travel expenses.

"I think it's amazing," Wallaert said. "The response we're getting back from faculty and staff is phenominal. Some faculty have announced that they're not going to have class one of the days in order for the students to have an opportunity to build and that's fantastic."

Since the Office of Residence Life sent e-mails to the student body and posted fliers around campus on Feb. 20 advertising the event, 380 volunteers - including 10 students organizations - have signed up to volunteer for the build. About 200 students are expected to participate in the community service activity.

Bruce Skinner, director of the Office of Residence Life, said normally recruiting students to sign up for projects can be difficult. But with Build Southeast it's a different response.

"That's sort of a change," Skinner said. "You normally have to drag them in but we have them coming to us.

"It's a win for the family, it's a win for the university and if we can get students doing this while in they're in college there's a greater chance they will be active in their community upon graduation."

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628