THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130368
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 82 lines
Paulette Edwards ran her hands approvingly over the smooth kitchen counter top inside her brand new home Wednesday morning. Edwards, a single mom with a 10-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son, beamed: After years of living in a rented apartment, her family now had a place of its own.
Edwards had become a proud first-time homeowner.
``I love it, it's just beautiful,'' she said. ``I can't wait to come in and cook my first meal. This is like a dream come true.''
Just as proud was a group of high school students at the Norfolk Technical Vocational Center.
In a first for the city school system, building trades students teamed to assemble the three-bedroom, 1 1/2-bathroom Cape Cod for South Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity, Inc., a nonprofit group that taps community resources to build affordable homes for low-income families.
``Everybody put their heart and soul into this house,'' said junior Scott Vipond, 17, who plans to become a building contractor or plumber. ``This is something we'll never forget - this is learning for life.''
Under bright sunshine Wednesday morning, Edwards and the students, along with teachers, administrators and Habitat for Humanity officials, gathered to dedicate the house, located in a well-kept neighborhood in the 2600 block of Ballentine Blvd.
School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner called the event ``the happiest moment I've experienced'' in nine years on the board.
The project combined two education trends now sweeping the country: getting students involved in community-service projects, and giving them ``real-world'' experiences to make school relevant to their lives.
``We've seen students really blossom in this program,'' said Deputy Superintendent J. Frank Sellew. ``Their attendance improved, their work ethic improved.''
The students began work last fall from the ground up, first clearing tangled underbrush from a vacant lot donated by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
More than 50 students and eight teachers were involved. Except for subcontracting insulation work and getting help laying the foundation, the students did all of the work: framing, roofing, wiring, plumbing, cabinetry, heating and air-conditioning and landscaping.
The Norfolk Skills Center, which helps train unemployed and underemployed adults, laid the brick foundation.
The students labored through one of the worst winters in recent memory.
``Temperature never kept us out, snow never kept us out, light rain didn't stop us,'' said Steve Draeger, building trades instructor at the vocational center. ``The kids were pushed harder than they've ever been pushed.''
David Trotman, carpentry and cabinetry teacher, added: ``There were some students out here Saturdays and at night, on their own.''
Students said the project was the ultimate hands-on learning experience, providing skills they'd never learn in a classroom.
``It feels good to accomplish something that you put a whole lot of work into and to see it through,'' said senior Michael Webb, 18.
Junior Bruce Purnell, 17, said, ``How often can you go down the street and point out a house to your kids or grandkids and say, `I helped build that'? It makes me feel great.''
Charles E. Land, president of South Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity, said the house on Ballentine is the 31st the organization has built in the region, made possible by donations of various businesses and community groups.
The house is the third built by high schoolers in the region: students in Virginia Beach worked on their second this year, he said. Norfolk school officials said they hope the Habitat house-building becomes an annual project.
``We're getting sort of a double shot: we're getting a house for a family that wants a good place of their own to live, and then there's the educational experience for these students. This is a great partnership.''
Edwards thinks so, too. ``I'm very proud,'' she told the students during Wednesday's ceremony, ``and you just know y'all are welcome to stop by any time you're in the neighborhood.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Paulette Edwards, center, stands on the porch of a house built for
her family by students at the Norfolk Technical Vocational Center.
The students constructed the three-bedroom Cape Cod in conjunction
with South Hampton Roads Habitat for Humanity Inc.
Twenty-year-old David Wilkinson, center, and several of his fellow
students received certificates Wednesday for their work in building
the house in Norfolk. With him was his stepfather, Dennis Hopper.
KEYWORDS: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY by CNB