Big hearts and helpful hands

South Side High School junior Jenna Randazzo is one of five students from The Community Church of East Williston’s Senior Youth Group who volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Homestead, Fla. for the week of their mid winter recess. 

The youth volunteers are participants of Collegiate Challenge, Habitat for Humanity’s alternative break program. During the week of Feb. 14, the students helped a family in need of a simple, decent and affordable home. They raised the money from car washes, pumpkin patch sales, waited on and bused tables at a community theater dinner, sold cookies and Christmas cards. Also, many generous donors from the community contributed to help them raise the money for their trip.

“Our Habitat for Humanity mission will be building affordable housing in one of the country’s top five poorest regions,” said Kelsey Eckhoff, a junior at The Wheatley School. 

Selected after a long process, the homeowners, who are among the working poor, will be able to afford the housing when it is completed. They will also put in about 300 hours of help in building the house, working side by side with the student volunteers.

From February to April, Collegiate Challenge participants from across the country will volunteer in 200 Habitat locations. In the past 21 years of the program, more than 168,000 of them have volunteered with Habitat during their school breaks. “Students have a number of options to consider for their school breaks, and we are so grateful for their interest in volunteering their time with Habitat,” said Desiree Adaway, Habitat for Humanity senior director of Volunteer Mobilization. “Their efforts will help provide homes for so many families in communities across the country.”

“We have big hearts and we can’t wait to meet the family,” Jenna said before leaving for the mission.