St. Paul’s Upper School students to build Habitat House

St. Paul’s Episcopal School’s Community Service Program Partners with Habitat for Humanity

By Rebecca A. Dunlap, Major Gifts Development Director
Advancement Office
St. Paul’s Episcopal School

MOBILE, AL — The Community Service Program at St. Paul’s Episcopal School encourages a lifelong commitment to service by instilling a passion in the student body for helping others. Through a variety of activities, St. Paul’s seeks to create a sense of service outside of the school and to improve the community around us.  Every Upper School student is required to complete at least 60 hours of community service prior to April 15 of their senior year.  Leslie Lerner, the Director of Community Service, at St. Paul’s School says, “Though 60 hours is the requirement most of our students go above and beyond this number because they truly enjoy community service activities.”  During the 2008-2009 school year, 14,377 hours of community service were provided by St. Paul’s high school students, equating for a value of $291,134.25* in human services provided to Mobile community. *(Using the 2008 Alabama Wage Independent Sector rate of $20.25 per hour).

This year, St. Paul’s Episcopal School was selected as one of the 2009-10 State Farm Service Learning Partnership Grant recipients.  St. Paul’s and Habitat for Humanity in Mobile County have been awarded a joint grant in the amount of $7,000.  In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, St. Paul’s Service Leadership Class and St. Paul’s students, parents, alumni and staff will build a new Habitat home for a deserving family in our community.

This six-month home building project will include Habitat for Humanity class sessions twice a month at St. Paul’s, a two-day house framing blitz and many work days at the site until the house is completed.  The classroom sessions will include information about poverty housing, the application process for becoming a Habitat homeowner family, and other activities designed to educate the students from the beginning of the process to the end.  Students have also chosen to work during a School holiday; Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be a Day of Caring and Service for St. Paul’s School.

The Gavin Family was chosen to receive the house that St. Paul’s School will build.  Tiffany Gavin is a single mother raising three children, ages 9, 7, and 3 years old. The project will conclude with the Dedication of the Home Ceremony on March 19^th at 4pm.

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness worldwide and to making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action. The ministry of Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, decent place to live in dignity and safety.