By Johnna Pinholster
VALDOSTA — Helping a family realize its dream of owning a home will be the goal of Lowndes High School students in the spring.
The senior class kicked off a community service project to build a house for Habitat for Humanity on Nov. 10.
This will be the first Habitat home built outside of Valdosta in Lowndes County, said Amy Carter, LHS Diversified Cooperative Training coordinator.
Finalization of the project is still being done, but Carter expects the students to begin working on the house after the first of the year.
Leanne McCall, LHS assistant principal, said she hopes the service project will continue to grow, with other classes participating. She envisions one day there being a Viking Village built by students.
Though the Habitat project is being billed as a senior project, underclassmen and teachers from all Lowndes County schools are invited to participate, McCall said.
Junior John Hall will be participating in the project.
“It will be great to have something to reflect back on a few years after I graduate,” he said.
Tyler Willis, 18, said he’s looking forward to helping with the groundwork on the property.
“It will be good for the whole senior class,” he said.
The community service hours are not required to graduate, Carter said, but students obtaining a certain number of hours will receive a medal upon graduation.
The silver medal will be given to students who perform between 35 and 60 hours of community service and the gold medal will be given to those who perform 61 or more hours.
“There are a lot of different reasons for students to get involved,” Carter said. “With the experience they may begin a lifetime of working with Habitat, of giving back to the community no matter where they are.”
Courtney Canino, 18, is excited about helping out and getting involved with the project.
“We are a part of making someone’s life better than it is,” Canino said. “It’s an opportunity to give someone a better quality of life.”
Students will work on the Habitat house outside of school hours, she said.
Will Mast, 17, said the project will show that students do care about the community.
“It shows that we help people in our community,” Mast said, “and that they stress community service in the schools.”
Kent Frey, 18, said it will show students in a responsible light.
“Not all of us are bad. Some of us know how to do the right thing,” he said.
The students were introduced to the family on Nov. 10. The mother and her three children — two of them attend Lowndes County schools — currently live in Valdosta.
The home is not wheelchair accessible, which is needed since the oldest child, a fourth grader, is wheelchair bound, Carter said.
The home built by the students will be handicap accessible, McCall said.
Some funds to help facilitate the project will need to be raised, and Carter and McCall, along with the students, are still developing fund-raising options.
