May 23, 2002
Contact: Annie Johnson (509-963-3468/fax 509-963-2301/e-mail: johnsann@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Several Central Washington University College of Business (COB) students, along with COB dean Dr. Roy Savoian, spent a recent Saturday morning trading their calculators for shovels, rakes and other manual-labor tools. They were providing volunteer labor for Ellensburg’s Habitat for Humanity, a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit, non-denominational Christian housing organization.
“It is important for students to understand and experience the many ways of contributing to their respective communities,” Savoian says. “Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity need volunteers to help improve the quality of life for the community and for those who reside and contribute to its vitality.”
Habitat for Humanity’s stated goal is to provide simple, decent, affordable, housing in partnership with those needing adequate shelter. Partner families invest hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” into building their homes and the homes of others. Mortgage payments go into a revolving fund that Habitat for Humanity uses to build additional housing. While volunteers supply most of the labor, individuals and corporate donors provide money and building materials.
Since 1976, organization officials note more than 100,000 Habitat for Humanity homes, including 30,000 in the U.S. and five in Ellensburg, have been built in more than 80 countries.
The Central students helped complete work on a sixth local home, on Indiana Street off north Water Street.
“Habitat is the service organization adopted by the COB dean’s council of student club presidents,” Savoian points out. “Four of the student volunteers are council members. All of the students seemed genuinely interested in the local project and pleased that, in some small way, they were helping a family realize the dream of home ownership.”
