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more photosBend High students Stephanie Stratton, 17, left, and Katie Fowlds, 15, take measurements while building a fence with their classmates at a Habitat for Humanity house in Bend on Saturday.
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Lessons in homelessness and in making a home
Community 101 aims to involve students in civic issues; on Saturday, 8 Bend high schoolers helped finish off a Habitat for Humanity home
By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin
Published: May 10. 2009 4:00AM PSTFor at least eight Bend High School students, Saturday was not just another day to sleep in and lounge around.
The students, who are part of the high school’s Community 101 project, spent six hours at a Habitat for Humanity site on Blakely Road on Bend’s south side, helping to put some of the finishing touches on a house that will go to a family in need.
Lisa Nye, a social studies teacher at Bend High, organized the outing for her students, who not only learned about homelessness over the course of their classes, but also received hands-on experiences providing help.
“This is sort of a culmination and another way to give back,” she said.
The Oregon Community Foundation and the PGE Foundation founded Community 101 about 12 years ago, as a way for students to get involved with the community and learn skills like civic engagement. This year, students from Bend High and Summit High School are participating.
The goal is for students to identify the needs in their communities, then research and visit nonprofits. Based on that information, the students decide how to give out $5,000 from the foundations to area programs in need of funding.
They also volunteer throughout the duration of the program; Nye’s Bend High classes cooked and cleaned several times at Bend’s Community Center, and the painting and fence building Saturday at the Habitat for Humanity house was the final piece of the project.
Bend High students decided to focus on homelessness, and alcohol and drug addiction as its main issues; after touring several nonprofits, the classes decided to donate funds to The Loft, Bethlehem Inn, Saving Grace, MountainStar Family Relief Nursery and Bend’s Community Center.
Nye is amazed at how much her students have learned from the Community 101 program.
“It’s had a much deeper impact than I went in thinking it would have,” she said. “It’s really changed their understanding of who the homeless are in our community.”
Stephanie Stratton, 17, is a junior who organized Community 101 for Nye’s two psychology classes. She was one of eight students at the Habitat site on Saturday. The event ran from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and students built a fence and painted the inside of a house that was nearly complete.
“We’re all kind of inexperienced,” Stephanie said of the group. “But we want to get as much done as possible.”
The enthusiasm was obvious. The students, wearing tool belts and keeping busy in the morning sun, spent their hours mixing concrete, digging holes and measuring fence posts.
Kervin Villalobos, 17, split his time Saturday between painting inside and using a power drill to put the fence together. Working on the house had special significance to him, he said, because his family lives in a Habitat for Humanity house near Bend High.
“My parents used to volunteer (with Habitat for Humanity),” he said. “And now I’m finally old enough to help out.”
Knowing someone else’s family would soon be living in the Blakely Road house made Kervin happy.
“It makes me feel good I did something to give back to the community,” he said. And he hopes to keep up the volunteering. “I’m actually having a lot of fun.”
And Alyssa Walton, 17, said she was eager to help out. She’s volunteered a lot with her church, especially at Shepherd’s House. But she’d never helped build a house before. Still, she was excited to be part of the project.
“It’s not really about me. I think it’s nice to think about a family having a house,” she said. “We’re hopefully contributing to their happiness.”
Sheila G. Miller
can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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