Elizabethtown College’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) is hosting a service trip from Oct. 10th through Oct. 12. Volunteers will be going to the Lancaster-Lebanon Habitat for Humanity site in Columbia, Pennsylvania, to help build houses for people in need.
“We would love to get the word out to more students about this trip in general,” said CCCE student coordinator Kenzie Laity. Fifteen volunteers have signed up to attend the trip, and all of the spots have been filled. The CCCE has also hosted this trip in years past, so they are hopeful about continuing the tradition next year for more students to get involved.
Macey Coll, who has a minor in architectural studies, has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity on several occasions, including last year’s CCCE fall service trip.
“Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that helps provide affordable houses to families who may not be able to afford a home,” Coll said. “The homebuyers, in addition to repaying their mortgage and receiving classes on financial education, complete so many sweat equity hours by volunteering on construction sites with other homeowners and volunteers like you and me.”
Habitat for Humanity is an organization that builds houses which are then offered to low-to-moderate-income individuals and families for a low monthly rate. Homebuyers must also complete a homebuyer education course, a certain number of volunteer hours, and a certain number of “sweat equity” hours. “Sweat equity” means that prospective homebuyers must put in a certain amount of physical labor into the house that Habitat for Humanity builds for them.
Volunteers from Etown will be participating in several different tasks during their time at the Habitat for Humanity site, including manual labor to help prepare the houses at the site.
“For the first two days, students will be helping to build a home in Columbia, PA. We will be helping to put up fencing at the property as well as other final touches they need us to do, since their site is almost complete,” Laity said. “On the third day, we will work at Habitat’s ReStore, which is located in Lancaster and is a store where they sell construction materials. We’ll help with cleaning, organizing, and sorting donations.”
For volunteers who are going on this trip or who are planning to go next year, there are a few things to note. There is a fee of $25 that covers the transportation and food costs. Students will leave campus at 7 a.m. each day and will return to Etown around 4 p.m.
Past participants like Coll have greatly enjoyed volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.
“Through subcontractors and the highly trained construction staff, I learned so much more about construction than I went into knowing,”Coll said. “Everyone was so nice and genuinely wanted to help you be a better builder.”
The CCCE has several other service projects this semester. For example, the 31st annual Into the Streets event will be happening on Oct. 19. Students can sign up in groups or as individuals to volunteer for different organizations across Elizabethtown, such as the Community Cupboard, Girls on the Run, and the Latino Hispanic-American Community Center.
The CCCE will also be hosting a service trip to the Midwest Food Bank on Nov. 16. There will be a morning and an afternoon shift. This event will be capped at fifteen volunteers, and the deadline to sign up is on Oct. 9. Volunteers will be packaging items and cleaning up the warehouse.
Any questions about the CCCE and its events can be sent to civicengagement@etown.edu.
