Guerin scholars help out Habitat for Humanity
August 8, 2011 3:30PM
Melissa Cyrwus, Jenna Zacharias, Melanie Niepsuj, Joanna Nguyen and Vanessa Negron celebrate the completion of the house for Habitat for Humanity.
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Updated: November 2, 2011 2:04PM
Guerin Prep Nolan Scholars experienced a trip they will never forget last month. As they hit the road to Merryville, Tenn., they never thought how life-changing their service project could be.
The beginning of the trip was spent by getting acquainted with one other outside the walls of Guerin Prep and sightseeing. Then the students set out to work for Habitat for Humanity.
First, students were welcomed into the community during a dinner at a Methodist church. They discovered many people were in need of extra support because they were living in poverty.
After dinner, students were introduced to the houses they were helping to build for two families. They got to work by putting up siding and helping with the stucco.
One Guerin student, Melanie Niepsuj, said, “I liked putting up the siding the best. We were able to learn so much about things we never would have expected to learn as teenagers.”
In addition to learning ins and outs of hard physical labor, students met many different people while working closely together.
Students learned homelessness and poverty were everywhere, but their help went a long way, especially in the lives of two families who received the houses.
The students also volunteered time at the Habitat Resale Shop as another effort to help Habitat for Humanity, where they sorted through piles of clothes and assembled window displays. All money made from the resale shop went to funding Habitat.
All the hard work paid off for the Guerin Prep students, especially when they met the families for whom they built the houses. One family was a single mom with three kids, and the other family was a Sudanese family who barely spoke English.
Even though the families were so different, they shared the same appreciation for their new houses. Guerin Junior Jenna Zacharias said, “I felt like I really helped change someone’s life. The great thing about a Habitat house is that so many people can help change one person’s life and the person may never even get to meet them.”
“There were people who volunteer almost every day and that is by far the most selfless thing I have ever seen.”
The mission trip was a great success, not only in the lives of the familiess, but of the Guerin students, as well.
Melissa Cyrwus, Guerin Prep junior, described the trip as, “The opportunity to experience trial by nature, the value of true hard work and the ability to identify with personal struggle, all with my Nolan family.”
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