CRESTVIEW — Not every college student is spending spring break on the beach. Eighteen students from Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Ky., are in Crestview, Fla., hammering nails into a Habitat for Humanity house.
The college has sent students to build a Hub City home for at least five years now, Habitat Community Outreach Director Melissa Forte said. A $60,000 Publix Supermarkets Charities grant made the new home’s construction possible, and the school’s Business Society sponsored the mission.
“We have a special relationship with the folks here,” said associate professor of accounting Maria Mitchell, one of the group’s three chaperones. “We’re really blessed to have great kids with us.”
Students — who arrived March 6 to a welcome dinner at St. Simon’s on the Sound, their home away from home during their weeklong stay — said they appreciate the opportunity.
“It’s exciting to do a small part to help a family become homeowners,” Business Society Vice President Chanté Randolph said.
“It helps me as a person because it makes me feel that I accomplished something, that I did something to help a family out,” Louis Walker said.
See photos from the Crestview home build>>
When Thomas More students arrived at the Panagra Lane home site, it was a concrete slab with basic framing.
“It’s amazing to see the transformation already,” Chanté said Wednesday afternoon as she and classmates hauled roof trusses into place. “From ground up, this is pretty awesome!”
“We started with a concrete floor and now we have trusses up,” business professor and chaperone Eddie Oestreicher said.
For biology major Darron Hampton, the experience is fulfilling and educational.
“I used to watch ‘This Old House’ with Dad, but I never realized the ins and outs of building a house,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into it, even in a small house like this. And it’s good to make a difference in somebody’s lives.”
Mark Messingerschlager — a Thomas More alumnus who’s attended previous Crestview builds, and now works for the college — helped seasoned locals supervise first-timers.
“I thought I was only going to do this once, and here I am,” he said. “As soon as I pulled up I recognized the house next door. I worked on it five years ago.”
Student Jessie Shumate, who just returned from a mission trip building a house in Guatemala two weeks before heading to Florida, was delighted to be in Crestview.
“Otherwise I’d be doing homework at home,” she said. “I’d rather be doing this where I’m helping other people.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Kentucky college students help build Habitat for Humanity home in Crestview (VIDEO, PHOTOS)