DINAH GALLEY
Staff Writer
“I had no idea how bad it was to sleep outside, and we had better conditions than most homeless.”
Those were the words of junior Jessica Hancox after she volunteered to sleep outside to raise awareness of homelessness. She recently became a member of Pepperdine’s newly chartered Habitat for Humanity Club because she liked the club’s purpose — to keep warm.
Habitat Club has accomplished a lot since its inception more than a year ago. Multiple education days and fund-raisers have been staged. One notable fund-raiser in the fall was a “sleep out,” which was meant to teach Pepperdine students a bit of what the world’s homeless endure daily. Students camped outside for a night and were given an article of clothing for each sponsor they received. If a volunteer had few sponsors, they were left cold for the night.
But that is not what Hancox expected to do. She agreed to sleep outside Dorm 16 in the sandy volleyball courts from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. It just happened to be the coldest night of the season and incredibly windy.
“Sand blew in our faces,” Hancox said. “It was horrible, awful. I hated it.”
She did say that it made her sympathize with the plight of the homeless, who live in worse conditions. Some of those homeless are receiving much-needed help from organizations such as Habitat for Humanity International.
Habitat is a nonprofit Christian-affiliated organization with the goal to reduce homelessness and poor living conditions throughout the world. It accomplishes its mission by organizing volunteers to help build low-cost homes in more than 100 countries.
Millard and Linda Fuller, a millionaire couple, founded the organization in 1942. Today, Habitat has built 175,000 homes in which more than 900,000 people reside.
With so many families in need, Habitat instituted policies for selecting the families that would receive homes. Applicants or referrals must prove to a selection committee their level of need, ability to pay off their loan and dedication to helping in the build process.
After several years of sending students to Ventura County’s Habitat site to build homes, the Pepperdine Volunteer center established an affiliate chapter on campus.
Lee Diaz, a former employee in the PVC, handled the preliminary work and worked with then student Giuseppe Nespoli, the club’s first president, to start the chapter.
Joel Carlman, the club’s current president, said he hopes to build on Nespoli’s foundation and increase the number of build dates to two per weekend. According to Nespoli and Ashley Nolan, the club’s adviser and PVC associate director, interest in volunteering has called for the build increase.
“People want to volunteer as groups,” Nolan said.
Habitat club has about 25 members, with a five-member executive board. In addition, at least 25 other students and faculty regularly attend weekend builds.
The group is racking up accomplishments, from raising $6,000 to help fund a home in Kenya to organizing two Project Serve locations for Spring Break.
But members of Habitat club say their proudest achievement has been its adherence to Pepperdine’s mantra: “Freely ye receive, freely ye give.”
“In the Volunteer Center, the main goal is to connect students with service,” Nolan said. “Habitat is an organization with real results. Students can see a tangible difference.”
01-20-2005