Students Build Habitat House in Three Days
by Lydia Garlikov

Thick North Carolina clay couldn't keep members of UNC Habitat for Humanity away from the construction site this weekend. It didn’t slow down their "blitz build"—a plan to build a house in just three days—either.

"It's neat just to see the change from Friday morning when we got out here and it was just cement,” said Liz Sessler, co-chairwoman of UNC Habitat. “I mean, by the end of that day, we had two stacks of walls. This morning, by the time I got out here, they had at least three or four of the walls up, and it's just so amazing. I can't believe it's happening."

Linda Parson, the future owner of the house and a UNC staff member, can’t believe it, either. The volunteering students spent their weekend building a first house and first yard for her two young children.

"I have respect for the students and a great appreciation for them coming out [and] giving their time,” Parson said. "I know how it is when you go to class all week; you want to sleep in on Saturdays. For them to come out here at eight o'clock in the morning and want to help build my house is absolutely great."

Building houses is nothing new for UNC Habitat. They build houses around the United States and the world. They’ve traveled to Honduras for the past eight years and will head to India this spring. But this weekend’s build was the first in the town of Chapel Hill and for a University staff member.

Sessler and Habitat wanted to build a house in Chapel Hill because it means more than just constructing the house. Habitat is building a new relationship between the University and the town.

"To be in Chapel Hill with the University [and] for someone from the University is a great way to bring everybody together,” said Sessler. “And [to] say Habitat's doing great things in Chapel Hill, not just in other countries or other parts of North Carolina, but actually in Chapel Hill [is great]."

The team packed up the hard hats Sunday evening, but they'll return each weekend until the house is finished this spring. The site is located off Homestead Road and Rogers Road in the Rusch Development community.

For more information on the building project and the Parson family, click here. If you’d like to be a volunteer on the house, contact Stephanie Bright.