Students Will Build Low-Income Home

High school students at Viewpoint School in Calabasas and three other secondary schools are blazing a new trail in the Habitat for Humanity effort.

As a group, they are the first California students to undertake the task of fund-raising and coordinating the building of a new home for a low-income family and the first to completely adopt a home in the Ventura County chapter of the charity.

The students have raised nearly $10,000 of the $50,000 they’ll need to buy materials, and are soliciting help from skilled professionals to help build one of 21 homes planned for an area of Piru.

More than a dozen Viewpoint students, along with similar numbers from Thatcher School in Ojai, Buena High School in Ventura and Fillmore High School, are responsible for building the home.

“I really like the camaraderie you feel when you work on the houses,” said 16-year old John Koger, project leader at Viewpoint. “And it gives you a good feeling when it’s finished.”

Lisa Olson, Viewpoint’s school director of community service, said that in addition to the skills they’ll learn from construction and in writing grant proposals, the project gives students a sense of their place in the community.

“We try to teach them that along with knowledge comes responsibility,” Olson said. “It’s not enough to get a good education and better yourself, just so you can make money.”

Habitat officials said the idea came out of a frustration at having to turn youth groups away because there was very little construction work to do.

“We wanted to use the energy that they are willing to give us, and instead of turning it away, we’re turning it into something beyond just pounding nails,” said volunteer MaryBeth Ventura.

The adopted home is expected to begin construction in spring 1998. Habitat officials said that if the students are unable to raise the amount needed by then, the house will be built anyway.