Pinellas Hope helpers
SVEC volunteers build shelters
By BOB McCLURE
| Article published on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 |
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| Students at Seminole Vocational Education Center work on the roof of a shelter under construction. The shelters will be used for the homeless at Pinellas Hope in Pinellas Park. |
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SEMINOLE – While many of their peers were sleeping in late, a group of former and current students at Seminole Vocational Education Center spent mornings the last couple of weeks performing work on a humanitarian project.
About 24 graduates and current carpentry and electrical program students toiled under the warm morning sun to build four shelters that will be used at Pinellas Hope, a camp for the homeless in Pinellas Park sponsored by Catholic Charities.
The four 6-by-8-foot shelters are the first of up to 80 that will be built at the school under an agreement between SVEC and the Diocese of St. Petersburg.
The structures have a locking front door with a window, a window on each wall of the building and a sturdy tile roof. Inside, there’s a pull-down table for meals, a shelf with a clothes rack, additional shelving for smaller personal items and a solar-powered fluorescent light. School officials are also hoping to partner with a supplier to provide small fans for inside the shelters.
Cost of the materials for each unit is about $900, which is funded by Catholic Charities. Lowe’s provides the shed kits, while Energy Systems Group and Solar Source provide the solar panels to operate the lighting.
“We did a prototype earlier and they (Catholic Charities) liked it,” said John Veenstra, a carpentry instructor at SVEC who also volunteered his time. “So we’re building four over the summer. These are all good guys and good students.”
The group of volunteers included Ali Showard, a 2006 SVEC graduate, and Chad Pickenpaugh, a 2008 carpentry grad.
“Construction is slow now and I wanted to keep my hands busy,” said Pickenpaugh. “Plus, this feels pretty good.”
“This is a good way to do something to help people out and be passionate. This brings the two things together,” said Zack Lewis, a senior at SVEC. “This is a lot better than sitting around all day.”
“It’s a good cause. It’s all-around good,” said junior Chris Jelenz, a Level-5 student in the carpentry program. “It’s nice that we get to do this kind of thing.”
Robert Carson, a 2009 graduate of the school’s electrical program, echoed his sentiments.
“I’m not a morning person but it’s good,” said Carson. “After the day’s over, you feel good.”
Charitable causes are nothing new for Carson. He recently cut off 11 inches of his hair and donated it to Locks of Love, a program that provides wigs to cancer patients.
While the main goal of the project is to build structures that will help the homeless, students will be learning and using skills to help them satisfy requirements for national certification. Many of the students have already attained their Occupational Health and Safety Administration 10-hour safety certification, National Center for Construction Education and Research core certification and NCCER Level 1 certification, which are required by most building contractors.
NCCER is a nonprofit education foundation created to develop industry-driven craft training programs to help address workforce shortages in the construction industry.
The shelter project came about in February when SVEC guidance counselor Jim Gill read a newspaper story about the shelters at Pinellas Hope and thought immediately that the carpentry/electrical students at SVEC might be able to help out.
Gill and SVEC director Matt Fischer met Pinellas Hope chief executive director Sheila Lopez and hammered out an agreement for the school to construct up to 80 of the buildings during the 2009-10 school year.
“We went there and saw what they were doing, and thought we could do it a little better,” said Fischer.
The shelters built by SVEC students will have a better floor, a vapor barrier under the floor, ridge vents to allow heat to escape and an enhanced roof.
“We put larger windows on the prototype but it was a mistake because Lowe’s gave us the wrong size,” said Fischer. “The kids came up with the plan for the pull-down shelf and we added the solar panels on the roof to power the light inside.
“We’re working with the solar companies to get the cost down (for the solar panels),” Fischer added, “but more importantly, we want to add a fan inside. So we’re looking for more partners to help us.”
Fischer was searching for a partner to help the school deliver the first four shelters when they’re completed this week.
For more information, call 545-6405.
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Article published on Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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