Building hope

With 150 members, the largest club at Vestavia Hills High School is the Habitat for Humanity club. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015, the Habitat club has sponsored 11 houses in total and has been the largest VHHS club since its inception. After the club’s first house was built in 2006, it became the first high school Habitat for Humanity club in the United States to sponsor a house in its charter year. 

And the group is just getting started.

After completing their 2015 house in Ensley last March, club members spent the fall of 2015 fundraising for their next house. It takes $44,000 to sponsor a Habitat house in the Birmingham area, said Cynthia McGough, volunteer and Habitat for Humanity Greater Birmingham board member. Club members raise funds through golf tournaments, silent auctions and donations from family and community members. The club partners with Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church in their efforts to give a family a house to call their own.

Construction on the club’s next house will begin on Feb. 6, and they expect to dedicate the house by spring break, McGough said. The house will be in Winchester Hills in the Clay-Chalkville area.

“Since the club began in 2005, it has worked on dozens of homes, affecting many people,” McGough said. “The impact of the club reaches far beyond just the families of the homes which they sponsor each winter. Their commitment and enthusiasm also extends to the dozens of families whose houses they have helped build each fall since 2005 across Jefferson and Shelby counties.”

McGough began volunteering with Habitat in the late 1990s, she said. She continued to volunteer through her church, VHUMC, and on her own. In 2005, a VHHS student sought to create a Habitat club at the school, and McGough helped make that happen. McGough drives students to Habitat sites in a VHUMC church van on Saturdays, meeting students at VHUMC at 7:30 a.m. and returning by 4 p.m.

“I help more students get to the sites each week since many of them do not drive yet or are inexperienced drivers whose parents don’t want them traveling into unfamiliar areas,” McGough said. “At the site, I teach and monitor their safety while using ladders and power tools, walking on the roof, et cetera. I try to be a role model in every way.”

Since 2007, the club and VHUMC have partnered to co-sponsor a house each year. VHHS pays for $22,000 and VHUMC matches that. Club members have assisted in building houses in Wylam, Ensley, Forestdale, Titusville, Clay-Chalkville, Roebuck, Calera, Fairfield, Bessemer, Hueytown, Pinson, North Birmingham and East Avondale. Houses typically have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, usually for a family with young children or teens so that the students will be able to interact with them, McGough said. 

Each house takes about four to six weeks to build.

“Our VHHS Habitat club members are rock stars in the local Habitat community,” McGough said. “The Habitat on-site construction supervisors are always happy to see our students arrive because they know that they are great workers who will be focused on their tasks all day and get the job done. I always say that they are smart and enthusiastic, and all we adults have to do is show them what to do and how to do it and then get out of their way!”

In late summer each year, McGough said, club members meet at her house with volunteer coordinators from the Birmingham Habitat for Humanity office to plan their upcoming year. Club members work about 12 Saturdays during the fall on building sites assigned to them. By December, Habitat identifies a family for the VHHS club to sponsor. 

“On the opening day of our build each year, we meet our family, have a groundbreaking ceremony and get to work framing the walls of the house,” McGough said. “By the end of that first day, we generally have all of the exterior and interior walls together and standing.”

Every Saturday until the house is finished and dedicated, VHHS students are out working on it. After framing and standing the walls, club members install insulation and tile flooring, attach vinyl siding, occasionally attach roofing, paint, clean and landscape. On site with students are a Habitat employee and the site coordinator, who is a trained construction person and directs the work each week. Homeowners and family members also help build the houses, McGough said.

“Habitat houses are not free,” she said. “They must perform 300 hours of ‘sweat equity,’ 50 hours of which must be on their own home. If their work schedule permits, they are frequently on site with us on Saturdays. Our students always enjoy interacting with the prospective homeowners and their children if they are with us each week.”

When each Habitat house is completed, Habitat holds a dedication ceremony, McGough said.

“The homeowner is presented with a Bible, a hammer mounted on a plaque, and the keys to their new home,” she said. “Unfailingly, there are tears shed. As Habitat volunteers, we get to see parents fulfill dreams of having a safe, warm place for their children to grow up. We get to see those kids walk through a house when only the framed walls are standing, talking about which bedroom will be theirs. The homeowners know better than anyone that their home could not be built at an affordable price were it not for volunteers. It is deeply moving to help people realize their dreams.”

VHHS junior and club president Mary Frances Garner agrees.

“Fundraising for a house and building a house is hard work, but seeing a family receive the key to their new house – a safe, warm, and beautiful place to grow – is a humbling feeling I hope everyone can experience once in their lifetime,” she said.

McGough calls working with the club the most important thing she does in her life, especially now that she is retired.

“My interaction with the students is gratifying and exciting year after year,” she said. “I hope that the parents of these students know how proud they should be of our young people. In fact, I think every Vestavia Hills community member should be proud of these students and the work they do throughout the fall and into the spring. I am grateful that I am a part of all this. It is amazing.”

If you’re interested in volunteering with the club, email McGough at mcgough.cynthia@gmail.com or call her at 901-0956. To volunteer either individually or with a group with Habitat for Humanity Greater Birmingham, visit habitatbirmingham.org or call 780-1234.