Building Homes for Storm Victims

When you walk into the construction training facility at Mountain Heritage High School in Burnsville, it looks and sounds like any other carpentry class — until you realize what the students there are actually working on. Building Homes for Storm Victims.

“It makes me feel very proud knowing that I am able to help and change someone’s life that is in need through not only school but building and just helping out those that can’t really help themselves,” said Croix Silver, a senior at the high school.

Silver and classmate Hensley England are both seniors in Jeremy Dotts’ honors carpentry class and part of a new initiative aimed at helping their hometown get back on its feet in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

“I just wanted to go out and help others and this a great opportunity to do that,” England said.

One of their projects this semester is turning the wooden frame at the center of the workshop into a “tiny home” for a Yancey County storm victim who lost their home in the storm. It’s all part of a new partnership between the high school and Rebuilding Hollers, a local organization started by Stephanie Johnson after the storm.

“We have so many community members that lost their homes and all of these boys were affected by the storm. We all were. We all lived through everything that happened,” Johnson said.

Materials Donated

Rebuilding Hollers uses donated funds to purchase homebuilding materials, and through the partnership with Mountain Heritage High School, those supplies then make their way to the carpentry facility, where a group of 18 seniors goes to work on building an A-frame, 650-square-foot home shell.

“So it was a perfect marriage of the two to come together and collaborate with the students and the community to give back right here in Yancey County,” said Dotts, the carpentry teacher overseeing the program.

The high school said it hopes to keep the partnership going for at least the next several years, at a rate of about two to four tiny homes a year. Once the home shells are hauled off to the recipient, Rebuilding Hollers works with local contractors to get the interiors completed.

Source: Building Homes for Storm Victims

https://abc11.com/post/high-school-carpentry-students-turn-homebuilding-storm-victims/15903556/

https://www.techedmagazine.com/category/news-by-industry/construction-education/