Students Reaching Out

Peter R. Crooke ‘10

This fall many Columbia students joined hearts and hands and hammers with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity in a special building project. Combining forces with dozens of volunteers from Agnes Scott College, Georgia Tech, and the Westminster Schools, CTS folk worked alongside future homeowner Shelley Griffin and her son Brandon (and some skilled supervisors!) on their beautiful, three-bedroom house. Beginning with floor installation and wall-building/raising on September 8, volunteers worked for seven consecutive Saturdays until the house dedication on October 20. Some of the other work included framing, window and door installation, porch construction, insulation, truss-raising and roof installation, dry-walling, painting, shingling, siding, miscellaneous jobs, and finally … flower-planting and laying the new sod lawn! No job was too small (although some jobs seemed too big at times!). Folks from First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta provided hearty lunches for hungry volunteers each week, as Rev. Charles Black led us in prayers of thanksgiving. Shelley and Brandon moved into their new home around Thanksgiving and are expecting lots of life to soon pulse through their rooms and halls and kitchen and porch and lawn! We join them in their excitement … and on behalf of the CTS Outreach Committee, THANK YOU to all those who joined hearts and hands and hammers in the building of God’s Beloved Community here in Georgia, through Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. Rejoice!