HANAPEPE — “Just in time for New Year” is how the group of about two dozen student volunteers described their descent into the Habitat for Humanity facility in Hanapepe yesterday. Joy Limpawuchara is the student team leader for the group
HANAPEPE — “Just in time for New Year” is how the group of about two dozen student volunteers described their descent into the Habitat for Humanity facility in Hanapepe yesterday.
Joy Limpawuchara is the student team leader for the group of 27 students, many of whom hail from the University of Maryland, who arrived on Kaua’i late last year to help Habitat for Humanity construct houses in Hanapepe.
Limpawuchara said this is her third trip (to help build houses), but the first time to Hawai’i. Her previous travels took her to Louisiana, and Limpawuchara said all of the students are experiencing their first trip to the islands.
Housed at Kahili Mountain Park cottages during their four-week stay here, the group makes daily trips to Hanapepe, where half of the group continues on to the construction site while the remaining half stays at the Habitat facility working on projects that will be transported to the construction site.
“This is a hard-working group,” noted Roger Hanks, one of the Habitat supervisors. “They’re really making progress up on the hill.”
The students are working on two homes in a state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands project, and according to a site supervisor, if materials come in on schedule, they should be raising the walls early next week on the two homes that are now “rising from the ground.”
Preliminary work has the students working on completing the flooring, while the group at the Habitat facility works on creating the wall framework, moving from that project into creating the roof trusses.
Hanks said Habitat officials are really pleased with the work being done by these student volunteers, but the key to having continuity in keeping the houses coming up is to have local-resident groups volunteer so the workflow can continue between the groups that come on-island to help with the construction work.
In addition to working on actual construction, the student volunteers spent Wednesday helping re-arrange the thrift shop and consignment store located at the Habitat office in Hanapepe.
Hanks noted that because of the students’ hard work, they made several trips to the dump to get rid of non-working or un-salvageable items, and with the house-cleaning, there are now many more items on display for shoppers to choose from.
Sports Editor Dennis Fujimoto may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
