'Dalhousie students care'

DalHabitat volunteers gather for a photo near the build site. (Photo courtesy DalHabitat)

While the Katrina recovery effort no longer makes headlines, there was more than enough work for 150 Dalhousie and University of King’s College students who spent their study break in south-central Mississippi.

Instead of hitting the books, they had a crash course in home construction. They worked on 15 new houses on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Storm-damaged houses, unlivable because of black mould, mildew and water damage, were demolished to make way for new builds.

“It’s amazing how quickly you learn,” says Aaron Vomberg, co-president of DalHabitat along with Jessica Roy. “Someone with no knowledge whatsoever goes to the build site on the first day, and by the end of it, knows everything they need to about framing.”

Besides framing, the students installed floors, hammered shingles on roofs, put up siding and painted inside and out. At the end on the 10-day trip, they attended a dedication ceremony and turned over the keys to one of the families who’ll live in the house.

Biloxi was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has been rebuilding ever since. More than 60 per cent of its housing units were damaged and thousands of people were displaced. Many still live in FEMA trailers as they wait for decent, affordable housing.

Organizing three busloads of students and transporting them some 3,500 kilometres to the southern United States are no small feats, but somehow, everything went smoothly, says Mr. Vomberg. Even after a night out to Mardis Gras in New Orleans, everyone was back out on the build site by 8 a.m. the next day. The students stayed in dorms at Camp Victor Ministries in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

DalHabitat organizers Rachel Aaron, Iain Arseneau, Sam Levy, Aaron Vomberg, Jessica Roy and Jesse Howatt.

DalHabitat’s study-break trip has been growing in leaps and bounds: in 2007, 18 students rented vans and traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and in 2008, 51 students pitched in with the construction of the Musicians Village in the upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. This year’s trip is about as big as organizers can handle, although with so many students having such a positive experience, there’s bound to be pressure to expand.

“It just shows how much Dalhousie students care,” says Mr. Vomberg, who just finished the third year of his community design degree and is bound for a summer job with Calgary’s planning department. “But the fact that so many students want to help out makes it really challenging for us.”

DalHabitat—the executive also includes Rachel Aaron, Iain Arseneau, Jesse Howatt and Sam Levy—hopes to work closer with Habitat for Humanity HRM on local build sites and at its ReStore in Burnside. Recruiting student volunteers for 2009-2010 will begin in September. To get in touch with DalHabitat, email: habitat@dal.ca.