Illinois ASB

The third week of Alternative Spring Break was a bang-up good one. Pontotoc County Habitat for Humanity hosted twenty-four volunteers. Half were University of Illinois students, and half were members of a church group not much further from Champaign/ Urbana than Pontotoc is from Oxford.

The University students were evenly divided by sex, six girls and six boys. The church group had a ration of two males per female.

One of the boys from the University of Illinois had been here two years ago on Spring Break. Some of the adults in the church group were here as volunteers in ’05. It makes those of us who are affiliated with PCHFH proud when we get repeaters. It tells us we’re doing something right, if folks want to keep coming back.

I’m somewhat amazed at the amount of work that was accomplished by the large group. Decking was placed on the high roof of the house and rafters for the lower roof are ready for decking. Our warehouse renovation project is now light years (exaggeration) ahead of schedule, thanks to the work of two experienced builders, an electrician, and a small group of students who helped relocate a number of odd windows to an adjacent storage area.

While everyone had the opportunity to drive a nail or two, I would be remiss not to credit the university students for their dirt work. They dug out the ply board that was used to stay the concrete foundation, removed all the soil that filled a road ditch necessary to prevent a dirt road from washing away, and dug a ditch twenty-five feet long and approximately three feet wide and three feet deep to accommodate a large culvert for a driveway.

I’m very appreciative of the church groups that feed our volunteers each night and for those that provided lunch two days. From what I could see, everyone including three vegetarians were well fed.

As long as America raises up young people such as these two groups and the groups of volunteers who participated in Alternate Spring Break during the prior two weeks, our nation has no reason not to prosper. Thank you one and all.