Students, Faculty and Staff Invited to Join UC's Habitat for Humanity Project

The University of Cincinnati community is about to build a new connection with the Cincinnati community and it will use hammers, shingles and drywall. UC is teaming with Habitat for Humanity to build a new home for a local family. The work begins at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 27 and will run from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays through autumn and winter quarters. Volunteers will all break together for lunch, which will be provided by UC’s food service provider, Aramark.

Students, faculty and staff are invited to pitch in by downloading registration forms from the Center for Community Engagement Web site. Completed forms can be sent by e-mail to cce3@email.uc.edu or by fax to 513-556-1882. If you volunteer, you will not be required to work every Saturday. In fact, volunteers are encouraged to register now, so that the UC Habitat committee can work with you on arranging your Habitat schedule two weeks in advance of your scheduled workdays.

When work begins at the UC site, located at 111 Winkler St. in Mt. Auburn, UC will provide the transportation for the volunteers. Beginning at 7:30 a.m. on the work Saturdays, UC shuttles will be waiting in the lot behind the Faculty Club. The last shuttle will leave campus at 8:30 a.m.

The UC project has an added Habitat for Humanity initiative: 51 percent of the labor is to be done by women. However, both male and female volunteers are needed for the project. The “Women Building a Legacy Initiative” is meant to raise awareness of substandard housing across the nation and its affects on children. Habitat for Humanity reports that in the United States, 12 million children live in poverty housing.

UC Habitat committee co-chair Annmarie Thurnquist, director of renovations for Construction Management, is overseeing the construction of the UC project. She says safety will be a priority. Volunteers must wear jeans or long pants (no shorts) and hard-soled shoes (no sneakers). Other safety information can be found in the volunteer registration forms. The UC Habitat for Humanity student co-chair is Anne Fitzgerald, a chemistry and anthropology major.

Volunteers will also get to work with the future homeowner, Sylvia Smith, who is looking ahead to owning a home with her two children – a daughter, Sharvee, and a son, Jeremy.

Funding for the project was donated by Elaine Wernersbach, who grew up on Winkler Street and previously donated funding to build a Habitat house on Winkler Street in 2001.

The House That UC is Building

• The site is located at 111 Winkler St. in Mt. Auburn.
• Volunteers will be working on Saturdays from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The first day of work will begin Saturday, Sept. 27, as part of Welcome Week.
• The work is expected to continue through autumn and winter quarters.
• UC volunteers will build a two-story, three-bedroom home with one-and-a-half bathrooms.
• The home measures 1280 square feet and is 16 feet wide and 40 feet long.
• The home will have gray siding and blue shutters, a color scheme selected by the future homeowner, Sylvia Smith.