| Tuesday, November 1 1 th, 201 4

 

ASB Fall Build lands in Northwest Indiana

Khaleela Zaman
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Less than an hour away from campus lies
Hammond, Indiana, where 21 students and
staff spent their Saturday, November 8, par-
tially demolishing and rebuilding a house with
Habitat for Humanity. These students all ap-
plied and got a spot on the Alternative Spring
Break (ASB) team for this year. ASB is a stu-
dent organization at IIT that volunteers with
Habitat for Humanity and fundraises almost
all year for their week of volunteering during
Spring Break. Last year, ASB started a new tra-
dition of the team attending a Fall Build day
trip during the fall semester, both to wet the
new members’ feet in that sort of volunteer
work and as a team-bonding experience.
Riding out on a yellow school bus,
the team departed early in the morning for
Hammond. At first the bus stopped at the
wrong site, but the team still managed to make
good use of time by playing team-bonding

games together. Once everyone climbed back
onto the bus, music played and the team all
sang along, until they pulled up to the ac-
tual site in Hammond. Joining another small
group of volunteers, they all got safety glasses
and set out towards the house.

The site they were working on was
an abandoned house, without any occupants
for about 10 years. Habitat for Humanity of
Northwest Indiana acquired the house and is
now in the process of making it habitable once
again. Many things were wrong with the house,
mostly structural problems with the interior
framing and especially the roof. Therefore, the
team first got the oriented strand boards out
of the house and ready to be put on the roof.
Then, while some people climbed up the lad-
der to the roof to knock down all the drywall
from the ceiling and clear out the attic, the rest
of the team on the ground was taught how to
properly put on respirator masks (which were
really helpful in keeping their faces warm and
protected from the cold wind).

As part of the team stood on the
roof clearing out the attic, various things were
unearthed from up there: raccoon skeletons,
a vintage suitcase with only men’s ties inside,
boxes and boxes of toy trains, an old gun,
two vintage glass lanterns, plenty of children’s
clothes, and a rubber ducky (which became the
mascot for the students manning the dump—
ster.) Many scary stories were made up once
they connected the house number (6606) with
all the curious things coming out from be-
tween the rafters.

Once the entire previous roof was
ripped off from the trusses beneath, the rest of
the team climbed up the ladder to nail down
the oriented strand boards to the old trusses,
creating a sturdy new roof. Not everyday do
people get to balance on the trusses of a roof
with nothing beneath them but fallen debris,
crumbled drywall, and piles of trash layering
the ground floor of the single-story holise.
They were all having such a blast hammering
their lives away up there on the new roof that a

few of them had to be begged before agreeing
to stop for lunch. After lunch, they finished
nailing on the boards for the roof, covering the
boards with a synthetic plastic, water-resistant
wrap and nailing that down, and bringing up
the packages of shingles onto the roof. While
others were up on the roof, some were down
below learning how to use teamwork to better
take nails out, rather than yanking on each nail
and pulling for dear life.

By the end of the day, they were all
laughing and having lots of fun together. Out
of the team of 24 people, they were only short
three team members, so the organization had
a great turnout. They even bonded with Larry
and Brandon, who were the site leaders from
Habitat for Humanity in charge of construc-
tion on the site and coordinating the volun-
teers. There is truly nothing better than volun-
teering and helping provide homes for people
in need, while also having so much fun with
amazing ASB team members.

 

Photos by Khaleela Zaman
_