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Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative Youth Build a Habitat Home in Time for Christmas and Gain Mentors
Shawn Semelsberger.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Stipe,
Traverse City Record-Eagle
The rain was coming so the helpers on the roof had to work fast.
But these were not professional builders, effortlessly laying shingles. These were volunteers – about a half dozen or so from the Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative – giving their time to Habitat for Humanity to help build a home for a woman who needed one.
And so it was a bit of a happy miracle that, moments after the final shingles were placed that afternoon, the skies opened up, and it poured.
"We were very lucky to have the roofing done in time," said Linda Forward, a mentor coordinator from AmeriCorps working with MYOI. "And it was just in time."
Nature's kindness wasn't all that Forward, the seven youth from the Opportunity Passport™ program, mentors and supporters had to cheer about.
At the end of that long August day, everyone involved felt happier and more connected, knowing that they had given back to the community.
"I have no construction experience, so I don't know how much I really contributed," said Shawn Semelsberger, 23, an Opportunity Passport™ participant and former intern at MYOI, who helped place siding and install a shower. "But I was there, and I helped. Anything that you can do for your community is rewarding."
Semelsberger was so moved by the experience of building a home for someone in need, she even refused to accept a stipend offered to some of the youth in foster care to cover their mileage to the work site.
"This was something to give back to my community, and it's not something that I feel I should have been paid for," she said.
MYOI volunteers and participants
including Semelsberger (on ladder)
work on Habitat for Humanity
house
The feel-good aspect of the day got even sweeter, Forward said, when MYOI staffers realized that a sister of one of the Jim Casey members was to be the recipient of the completed house.
"Once we discovered that, it just sort of all fell together perfectly," Forward said.
The house, which was completed in fewer than four months, was dedicated to the new owners at an Open House on Dec. 2 – just weeks before Christmas.
The idea to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity came from one of the site's youth, said Brenda Kalchik, MYOI youth coordinator.
"We always take our leads from our youth, so I said that's something that we can explore," Kalchik said.
Staffers did some research and found that Habitat's mission fits in well with one of Jim Casey's asset areas: housing.
"We also wanted to connect our youth with community resources and people that could be of assistance to them," Kalchik said.
In addition to roofing, the youth helped with installing fiberglass insulation, putting in windows and doors and building a deck.
"They found out what it was like to build, to paint, to do a little bit of landscaping, and to learn about the Habitat for Humanity project as a whole," Kalchik said. "It was something that they could work toward so that someday they might be selected as a Habitat recipient."
Forward said that building a house without having any real training was frustrating at times for a few of the youth, who wanted to make sure to do it right. But they exercised patience, she said, and after seven hours, the tasks were completed. "They really gained some skills that day," Forward said.
The completed Habitat house was given to
the new owners on Dec. 2
Building the house also gave some of the young people hope, said Semelsberger, who is currently two semesters away from getting her associate's degree at Northwestern Michigan College and also works part-time at a homeless shelter for teenagers.
"Any at-risk youth who has gone through that experience of helping to build a house – whether they're in foster care or not – would feel like there is hope that someday they might be able to purchase a home," she said.
Another benefit of the day: Forward invited potential mentors to come hammer, paint and shingle the roof and as they toiled, she noticed which adults gravitated to which youth, and which had good rapport.
"I was able to make three different matches after a day of working together, so that worked out well," she said.
In fact, a local newspaper reporter came to write a story about the MYOI/Habitat partnership and not only wrote an article that ran in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, she enjoyed her time so much, she also has asked to become a mentor.
"We were very pleased to be able to help out with housing for a needy family in the area and for me to make mentor matches," Forward said. "It was a wonderful time."
