Compassionate in Spirit, in VA

GA students get to work on site.

Over President’s Day weekend, I traveled to Roanoke, Virginia with ten other students and two teachers. We planned this trip through the organization Habitat for Humanity where we were going to build houses. Barely capable of cutting with the band saw in Sculpture class, I was extremely anxious about my house-building capabilities. Within the first ten minutes after arriving on the building site in Roanoke, I was standing on scaffolding hammering nails into the side of a house. That same day, I was interviewed by a local NBC news station about what we were doing at this building site [see the story here]. The volunteers at the site, Brian and Jeff, were open to all questions and extremely helpful. They taught me construction jargon, such as “flush,” which means smooth, and “plumb,” which means level and balanced. Throughout my short-lived time as a construction worker, I used this lingo and fell right into place with my fellow workers. We worked for three days and during this time, the thirteen of us (with the help from regular volunteers) constructed a backyard shed, built and paved a walkway, and created a handicap ramp from scratch.

The ramp Sam and proudly helped construct.

Not only did I gain confidence in my construction skills, which I never imagined attaining, but I also gained relationships with people who I never would have connected with. Throughout the trip, I kept bringing up an ongoing analogy of “overnight camp” as I felt everything that we did, whether it be working outside (discounting the below freezing weather), eating meals together,

Enjoying some casual time in the church.

or sleeping in one room, everything reminded me of camp. Mrs. Cassidy and Ms. Blake were basically my counselors and the nine other students were my bunkmates. Unfortunately, the other students on the trip weren’t able to fully relate to this comparison, as I am the only one of us who attended overnight camp. But I believe that through my constant comparison to camp they were able to live vicariously through my experiences.

Beneath the famous Roanoke Star.

When we weren’t working on the construction site, we were playing knockout on the basketball court in the church that we stayed at, picking up food at the local Kroger super market, hiking the mountains to see the world’s largest man-made star, playing Sardines (which is basically like hide and go seek, but one person hid and we all had to find him), cooking and eating meals together, or just hanging out and getting to know each other better. I went into the trip a little nervous about the hard work and the weather, but those four days were filled with extensive laughter, group bonding, and produced my 10 seconds of fame. Though I went on the school service trip to Washington, D.C. last President’s Day weekend, this trip passed all of my expectations as I learned about a line of work unfamiliar to me and 12 new faces to say hi to in the hallway. I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this trip and I’m already urging my brother to go on the CSO trip next President’s Day weekend.

~ Sam F. ‘16