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| Tuesday, March 29th, 2016

  

Alternative Spring Break builds homes in North Carolina

Khaleela Zarnan
TECH N EWS WRITER

Eighteen students and staff members
of the Illinois Tech community embarked on
an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trip early
in the morning on Saturday, March 12. They
endured a fourteen—hour ride in four, and then
three, minivans (the fourth vehicle broke down
early in the journey) to Goldsboro, North
Carolina, and they all were still smiling upon
arrival at the lodging site in the small town.
Despite all that could have, and did, go wrong
before the trip, the core eighteen still made it to
Goldsboro, determined to make a difference in
that community.

When people think of Habitat for
Humanity, they usually think of building a
home. Well, the team thought so too, but
their previous hopes were dashed when they
followed the leader to their first worksite of
the week: a public park in the neighborhood.
Apparently the home the local Habitat chapter
had planned for the team to be working on
had a problem with its plumbing, so the

team would, as a result, be hopping around
to different sites throughout the week. This
situation really could have put a damper on the
morale of the team, but it did not. Throughout
the trip, the team laughed and laughed together
so much that they cried together, because
what really mattered to them was being able
to learn by giving back. Service learning is
the backbone of the Alternative Spring Break
student organization at Illinois Tech, and the
team this year truly embraced that.

So, instead of working on one
house, the ASB 2015—16 team worked in three
locations, and impacted many more. On
Monday, they were at the public park, working
out their back and bicep muscles intensely
while shoveling and raking, spreading mulch
together to beautify the park in such a simple
manner. On Tuesday, the team continued
working those same muscles, expanding on
what they had learned the day before and
applying it to backfilling one of the Goldsboro
Habitat chapter’s most recently finished
homes. They moved tons of dirt, and walked
almost eight miles just moving all that material
around the home. The team was fascinated to

be able to see a finished home built by a Habitat
for Humanity chapter and learn how Habitat
is really conscientious about making sure the
future homeowners have earned their sweat
equity in their new home, that they know how
to keep on track with their mortgage payments,
and that the home has been built with such
high quality to ensure an extremely low energy
bill, amongst many other things.

From Wednesday through
Friday that week, those eighteen dedicated
individuals continued to pour their hearts
and souls into accomplishing as much as
they could while working on two high—
quality sheds. They were so high quality
that ASB members who had participated in
previous spring builds recognized that these
sheds could truly be considered mini homes.
When the team arrived on Wednesday, the
sheds were framed with wood studs and were
partially sheathed. When the team left the
worksite on Friday afternoon, the sheds had
been completely sheathed, felt paper was on
the roof, both were completely shingled, soffit
and bird boxes nailed up, building wrap on,
and the vinyl siding was almost complete. In

addition, members of the team worked on
creatively reusing materials to build and paint
lawn decorations in the shape of eggs for the
Habitat ReStore in Goldsboro to sell. The team
could not have been more proud of all they had
accomplished throughout the week.

Besides just working on—site, serving
the community of Goldsboro, North Carolina,
learning more about Habitat for Humanity, and
about what it takes to perform construction—
type work, those eighteen students and
staff learned so much about themselves and
each other. Many students blossomed into
confident and outgoing individuals, and the
team also came together like they never before
imagined. Sleeping in the same building each
night, eating each meal together, cooking
dinners for the rest of the team alongside other
team members, riding with each other in the
three minivans that survived the entire trip—
this environment was able to foster sure—to—be
lasting friendships, bonds, and memories that
will survive a very long time, if not as long as
they live. ASB is unlike anything people have
experienced, unless they have participated in
an ASB trip themselves.

 

 

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Photos courtesy of ASB

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