NHS Group Helps Housatonic Habitat For Humanity

By Eliza Hallabeck

& Shannon Hicks

A group of Newtown High School students worked in Danbury on July 26 and 27 at a Housatonic Habitat for Humanity site, and during the two days earned roughly 14 hours of community service each.

“I’ll probably think about doing something with Habitat For Humanity again,” said Jonathan Schwartz, a rising sophomore at NHS, and whose mother, Carolyn Bell, chaperoned the group of students.

Jonathan said once he learned about the chance to work with Habitat for Humanity from his mother, he began texting and calling friends to share the opportunity to work on a site in Danbury.

Ms Bell chaperoned the group of seven students — Harry Solaski, Ian Solaski, Nathan Kalra, Brenton Scott, Grant Ricketts, Matt Hoyt, and Jonathan — while the group worked over the two-day experience.

“I thought that we did a pretty good job, and we had fun while doing it,” said Ian, who with his brother Harry has participated in working with other community minded organizations in the past.

Ms Bell attended a meeting for Habitat For Humanity this past spring, and felt it was a good organization to help out. During that meeting she learned from Fran Norman, development director for Housatonic Habitat for Humanity, that NHS was planning to send a group of National Honor Society students to work on the Danbury house in August, but Ms Bell thought it would be nice for any student who wanted to participate to be able to. She went home and started speaking with her son about it.

“I thought, ‘Why limit it to just those students?’” she said on Monday, August 1.

“I think,” she added, “it was a really good experience for all of us.”

Ms Norman explained the Danbury Housatonic Habitat for Humanity site has a 100-year-old house on the property, which was gutted and is in the process of being renovated. The Danbury-based group also started building a second house on the site, since the project began at the start of the year. Work on both houses is at roughly the same stage, according to Ms Norman.

Ms Norman said Housatonic Habitat is a construction firm that stimulates the local economy by working with local trades and businesses, it is a mortgage lender that sells homes to local working families, it is a social service agency that teaches families with limited incomes how to better leverage finances to become long-term productive citizens, and it is a force for change in the local economy by mobilizing individuals, organizations, and corporations to transform undesirable properties into affordable homes that change lives and revitalize neighborhoods.

Through volunteer labor, Ms Norman said Housatonic Habitat provides the community the opportunity to enable qualifying local families to own homes. The eventual homeowners for the Danbury location have already been chosen, according to Ms Norman.

One of the important aspects of the Habitat for Humanity model, said Ms Norman, is that homeowners must also contribute “sweat equity” — hours of work on the project. This helps the family to get to know the volunteers working to build the house, and establishes bonds with the surrounding community.

Ms Norman said Housatonic Habitat is hoping to turn the keys over to the families before the end of this year.

The seven NHS students were originally scheduled to work at the location on July 29, but plans changed last week, and Ms Bell says the group is hoping to return to work some more later this month.

“I like it because you get outside, you get to meet new people, and you are working for a good cause,” said Harry.

Harry said the group worked to remove siding from the original house on the property during their first day of work, and during the second day the students leveled the ground and put up siding on the house. While Harry said from the outside the house looks near-ready, the inside is still mainly just the structure.

“There are no walls,” said Harry.

Putting in hours on the site taught the group skills, said Jonathan. “I learned a lot more than I thought I would,” he added.

Ms Bell said she is encouraging her son to start a Habitat For Humanity group at NHS, and, meanwhile, the National Honor Society has already partnered with Housatonic Habitat and Ms Norman.

A New Club Forms At NHS

While school psychologist Thomas Brant, who is also and advisor for the National Honor Society, said the newly formed Habitat for Humanity Committee of the National Honor Society will be strictly for honor society students initially, he said the committee will eventually be open to students in other service groups at the high school.

The eight students on the committee now — Nicole Davis, Abbey Doski, Emily Ashbolt, Justina Paroski, Alex Kelly, Lauren Harrison, Olivia Rowley, Jess Haitz, and Bianca Solano — will be working at the Danbury site this Saturday, August 6, putting in their own hours.

Mr Brant said Nicole was interested in starting the group at the high school after previously volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity Committee of the National Honor Society will also be working toward big goals this school year, said Mr Brant, including a trip to work on a Habitat for Humanity site in Denver, Colo., over the district’s February break and working toward a larger goal of building a Habitat for Humanity house in Newtown. For the Denvertrip, Mr Brant said the group will need to raise between $10,000 and $15,000, and students and parents can keep an eye out for fundraisers throughout the school year. He also said prospective members of the Habitat for Humanity Committee of the National Honor Society will have chances to participate throughout the school year.