June 2011 Newsletter

What could be better than a living classroom?  Franklin County Technical School HAS A NEED FOR “living classrooms” so its students can really see the applications of their studies.  For students in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing and heating courses, the ideal living classroom involves building an entire house.  As students see the house take shape, they also see how each building trade must coordinate and work with the others.  Sometimes the landscaping classes get involved also.

Pioneer Valley Habitat needs many hands to build homes.  We especially need the skilled hands of electricians, for example, that our usual weekend crews cannot provide.  Do you see a perfect match here?  A real win-win? 

This “perfect match” is now building its third home in Franklin County--on Warner St. in Montague City.  The first two homes were on L Street in Turners Falls.  All three are just a short bus ride from the school, which is located at the edge of Turners Falls.

But there is another dimension:  service to others.  It was this dimension that was emphasized as the senior students were presented with t-shirts and key chains by Habitat’s Executive Director MJ Adams.  She expressed the hope that this would not be the end of the story.  Habitat for Humanity is everywhere and the need for volunteers (especially skilled ones) will be there whenever in the future they wish to reach out and do something for someone who needs a hand up.  “And by working on a Habitat project," reminded John Carey, the Director of Curriculum who coordinates offsite projects, "you belong to a worldwide association of people who have shared the same common goals."

Jocelyn Croft is an administrator at FCTS and is also on the PVH Family Support Committee.  She is the mentor for Storm Cindir and Andrea Chesnes, the future homeowners of this project.  Thus she sees both sides of the partnership and is one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders. 

Several students expressed agreement that work was more meaningful when it helps someone who needs it—not just when it satisfied class requirements.  Superintendent Richard Lane hoped that it would help them think about doing things for “other reasons.”  When they drive by years from now, they will remember what they helped build.

Friday, March 11 was bitterly cold in Western Massachusetts:  snow was on the way.  Thirty-four UMass students boarded three twelve-passenger vans and headed south.  Why?  To make the most of spring break, but not to lie on Florida’s famous beaches--although their destination was Miami.  Rather, they had volunteered to work on five new Habitat houses on the outskirts of the city.

There were surprises.  The trip down and back, twenty-six hours each way, didn’t feel like a holiday tour.  Lodgings in a Miami motel didn’t include the meals usually provided for Habitat volunteers:  they foraged for themselves, discovering that few people in the local supermarket spoke English.  In early March some had not expected the afternoon heat, which reached the upper ‘80s.  Still, as they said on returning, “We had fun!” They did have some recreation—even scuba diving—and enjoyed the work.  This consisted mainly of painting and installing dry wall, although some helped out in the restore shop, where Habitat sells new and used building materials at steep discounts.

Working side by side with the families who would own the new houses, according to Habitat practice, how well did the volunteers from UMass get to know them?  “Not very,” says Molly Flynn, their leader in charge of public relations.  Installing dry wall with electric tools doesn’t further conversation.  Yet the students did get a lively sense of the inadequate housing being left by some new Habitat families.  “And,” says Molly, “we were touched by the gratitude that came from these families.

What most impressed her and her fellow-students was the sense of enduring friendship they developed during their special vacation.  Last spring Molly, now a sophomore, worked on a Habitat site in Mobile; next year she will direct the whole UMass Spring Break Trip for Habitat.  There should be no lack of volunteers:  this year seventy students applied for the thirty-four places available.  Sharing labor can mean sharing hopes and values; social service can be as attractive as Florida’s azure sky.

A crowd of about thirty people braved the chilly drizzle at 6 Garfield Avenue in Florence on the morning of May 16.  They witnessed a wall going up for the third Habitat home to be erected on a site donated by the City of Northampton.  Students from Smith Vocational High School are doing much of the construction on this site.  The house will be wheelchair-accessible.

Sandy Belden, President of Pioneer Valley Habitat, welcomed the guests and praised the hard work being done by the students on this project.  Arthur Apostolou spoke on behalf of the students, who then carried out the actual wall raising--to rousing applause.

The house will be occupied by Mary Serrano and her youngest daughter Alicia, who is sixteen.  Mary has four children as well as four grandchildren (aged ten, four, one-and-a-half, and four months).  She has lived in the Valley for thirty years. Owning her own home has always been her dream, a dream that is about to be realized.