By Amanda Valentovic
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR
Most students went home or away on vacation when classes weren’t in session for spring break; but two clubs on campus traded in their notebooks and pencils for hammers and nails. The Newman Club, Hofstra’s Catholic club, traveled to Martin County, Kentucky to help renovate homes, while Hofstra’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity brought their house building skills to New Orleans.
“We worked on the home of a 90-year-old woman named Bitsy,” Melissa Cooke, the secretary of the Newman Club, said. “[The home] was around 100 years old and it was so old and slanted. We put up new siding and insulation.”
This was the Newman Club’s fourth trip to Kentucky. For the last few years, they have worked with the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), a nonprofit organization that works with people in poverty who are living in the mountainous area.
“We’ve been going to CAP for the last four years because our Catholic minister was a long term volunteer there,” said Cooke. “It allows members to engage with their faith on these trips.”
The spring break trip wasn’t the first for Habitat for Humanity, either. With the national Habitat for Humanity organization, they’ve spent past years in Delaware and North Carolina building homes.
“We signed up for the location with [the] national [chapter], and once we do that it’s student run,” Aditi Gupta, Habitat’s vice president said. This year in New Orleans, the members on the trip got to see a new place and learn how to build for the environment there.
“A lot of the places in New Orleans are hurricane proof, so they have to be lifted off of the ground,” said Gupta. “We weren’t working [on homes] directly related to Hurricane Katrina but the displacement is still affecting the area we were in, and that’s crazy.”
Even though it was a new place, the Habitat members were ready to put their experience to work. When they’re at home, they work with the Nassau County Habitat for Humanity chapter, who is currently working on relief for Hurricane Sandy victims.
The Newman Club was also building in an area that has had its own challenges.
“It’s in the mountains of Kentucky, which is a coal mining area,” said Cooke. “And coal mining has kind of taken a turn for the worse. It’s not that the people there are not hard workers, it’s just that it’s been difficult.”
Though each group was in a completely different location, both said the best part was working with the people there, as well as each other.
“They could not have exuded more gratitude,” Cooke said about Bitsy and her daughter Nell. “They said it was one of the best weeks of their lives and it was such an honor to work with them.”
“It was cool because we got to mix the culture with the work we love to do,” Gupta said. “It’s a great way to make friends who are like-minded who also want to give back.”
