By Anna Thompson
Seven William Peace University students, along with faculty adviser Roger Christman, drove to Endicott, New York over Spring Break to help a family repair their home damaged by Hurricane Irene.
The homeowner, Demetri, and his son Tony lived upstairs while the group worked on restoring the downstairs.
The upstairs was very small, with only two rooms, a laundry room with a bathroom alongside and a study that had been converted to a kitchen.
In the kitchen was a screech owl that Tony had raised from a baby named “Atta’ Boy.”
Demetri slept on a mattress on the floor while his dad slept on a futon.
The WPU students worked on putting up sheet rock and did some mudding as well. On the second day, Demetri and his friend Trevor came to help the group mud while others finished putting up the sheet rock.
Olivia Worsham, a junior at William Peace, was one of the students to go on the trip.
“One of the most challenging things was finding the exact measurements for the sheet rock,” she said.
“Since the house was built in the 1800’s and had been flooded the house leaned to one side. So because of this not every piece of sheet rock was exactly square and you had to measure for the outlets as well. I’d have to say that even though it was a challenge I definitely learned a lot.”
Jeanna Buck, a senior and WPU’s student body president, said, “The most rewarding thing for me was probably the progress we made on the house from start to finish. Also knowing that when that house is complete, we had a part in it and also knowing we made someone’s life a little bit better.”
While on the trip the group documented their efforts. The documentary will be shown at Peace near the end of the spring semester.