By Michelle DayLITTLE ROCK — The sound of hammers filled the street Wednesday in front of a house on Esser Drive in Little Rock as a group of volunteers replaced a roof and did other repairs.
Eighteen-year-old Kristen Howard of Dawson Springs, Ky., said she signed up for the week-long World Changers Inc. project after a friend told her about it.
“To be here, it could be answering prayers [that the owner of the house] has had for a long time,” she said. “God’s done so much for me, it’s the least I can do to help someone else.”
World Changers is a Georgia-based Christian nonprofit organization that sends high school and junior high students to cities across the U.S. and to Canada and Puerto Rico.
On Monday, about 275 out-of-state students and adult volunteers started construction and painting projects as part of a week-long effort to repair 20 houses in Little Rock.
Howard and about 15 others worked on the roof at 5020 Esser Drive. An adult working with the students described the roof as one of the worst he has ever seen. The crew endured rain and summer heat over the past few days, and repairs are nearly complete.
Howard said this is the first service trip she’s participated in but that she’s done similar work for Habitat for Humanity.
On Wednesday, as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s, several students commented about the heat but said they were glad it wasn’t raining like it did Tuesday.
“We need one day of beautiful weather. I wish we could work through the day since it’s not raining right now,” one female student said Wednesday, but they worked only half the day to give them a chance to go sightseeing.
This year, World Changers has sent more than 23,000 students to about 100 cities, said Daphne Davies, communications specialist for the group. All of the projects include basic home repairs, and volunteers pay $260 on average to participate.
This year’s volunteers in Little Rock came from nine states, from Texas to Illinois, she said. The volunteers were split into teams of about 15 people each and then were sent to 20 houses throughout the city.
The students worked from about 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. repairing roofs, painting and doing other repairs under the supervision of adults who have construction knowledge, Davies said.
“Basically the goal is to provide students to meet the physical needs of the communities around them ... and minister to people,” she said.
Area churches have volunteered to take lunches to the teams each day, and the volunteers are staying at Life Line Baptist Church, Davies said.
The houses for the project were selected from the Little Rock Housing and Neighborhood Programs’ housing rehabilitation program, which assists low-income residents with home repairs.
This article was published July 16, 2009 at 5:24 a.m.Arkansas, Pages 11, 18 on 07/16/2009
Copyright - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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