Waking up at six on a Saturday morning may not have seemed like the most appealing way to start off my weekend; however, having the opportunity to help build homes for others in my local community made me eager and excited to hear the sound of my alarm go off bright and early. On Saturday, February 25th I got ready to board a bus by seven to Santa Paula, where I would take part in building homes for two families of the community. The off campus community service center intern here at Cal Lu, Amanda Oyao, organized this Habitat for Humanity build day for CLU students to spend their Saturday working with construction workers and additional volunteers to hasten the building development of two homes. She rounded up a total of twenty three students to come out and devote their time towards assisting others.The bus arrived around eight, and our group quickly moved along to the build site to greet some of the other volunteers. We shared some introductions and were then split into different teams to focus on the various areas that needed attention on the houses. Two of our volunteers were harnessed and assisted a construction worker on the roof of one house to nail some boards in. Another group cleared and beautified the empty lots surrounding the houses. I was a part of the group that worked on stapling waterproof tarp onto the sides of the houses, which helps prevent water damage. Stapling paper to a wall sounds easy, but I can assure you it was no easy feat. It took eight of us to be able to execute this task. Some of us were holding the heavy, six foot roll of tarp in place, while others were in charge of stapling it to the walls. We also had to make sure we had some folks smoothing out the tarp because it had to be absolutely flat onto the wall. Then there were the individuals who cut the tarp when necessary, hammered the loose staples in the wall, and refilled the staple guns. I experienced a great sense of teamwork within my crew, especially with our volunteer leader. Each team had a leader, an individual who worked at the site and knew what needed to be accomplished. She patiently helped guide us into stapling tarp about both houses.We were working in Santa Paula from about eight to two, so by the end of our volunteering time our crew had really mastered how to staple waterproof tarp. It was long day, but we had fun working with each other to get further along with these houses. My favorite part about the entire day was meeting the actual families that are going to be living in each home. They were working the entire day as well and I believe it is amazing that they will be able to say that they helped build their own home. I am fortunate to have lived in my home for seventeen years, but I never had to build it. By constructing their own house, I can imagine they would have an even greater sense of appreciation for where they live.
This is not the first Habitat for Humanity build day that has been organized at Cal Lu, so if you hear about another opportunity to help some families out then I highly recommend going!
*Photos provided by myself.