For the fifth and final day of Americorps Week 2015, our group traveled to a construction site in New Haven to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. 603 Sherman Parkway is Habitat for Humanity’s 11^th build and is expected to be completed by early summer! A group of us had previously volunteered in October with Habitat, helping to paint and refurbish the central warehouse. We were excited to get our hands dirty, brave the cold weather, and do some real construction this time around!

When we arrived at the site early on Friday morning, there was considerable work to be done – the truck filled with tools and 80-pound concrete bags needed to be unloaded and the porch foundations had to be dug out and filled with concrete before it rained the next day. In addition, other Americorps members set to work nailing plywood boards into the rafters to create the base for a porch roof to be completed. They also finished laying down tar paper, a base layer for roofing shingles.  By the end of the day, Nam and My Phuong had become experts in concrete-mixing, Zach, Eliza and Elena successfully completed the porch foundations and Kristin and KellyAnn had made significant progress on the roof! We really enjoyed the chance to be outside for the day, add manual labor to our repertoire, and work together to help build a home for a family in need. It was rewarding to be able to contribute even just a day’s work towards the house and we are looking forward to volunteering again with Habitat when it is warmer out!

By: Eliza Hompe