DATE: October 10, 2007

CONTACT: Chris Heavner, (864) 506-0080
pastorc@clemson.edu

WRITER: Angela Nixon, (864) 656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu


Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity leads nation’s collegiate chapters

Work on 15th Homecoming house begins this week

CLEMSON – The Clemson University chapter of Habitat for Humanity has built more houses than any other collegiate chapter in the nation. Work on the chapter’s 24th house – the 15th house under construction as part of Clemson’s Homecoming celebration – began Monday, Oct. 8.

The house is being built on Bowman Field and work will continue through Friday, Oct. 19. (Work will pause Oct. 12 to 15 for students’ fall break). Hundreds of students will put in thousands of hours on the house, which will be moved to Copperfield Drive in Central after Homecoming Oct. 20.

The Homecoming House is part of an ongoing partnership between the Clemson University and Pickens County Habitat for Humanity chapters. In 2001, the chapter built five houses during a Blitz Build. In 2003, it partnered with students at D.W. Daniel High School in Central to build the first-ever Youth United home. Last year, the chapter built a house in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and a house that meets the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification requirements.

Opportunities to help build are not limited to students or members of Habitat for Humanity. Students who want to work during Homecoming week can walk up to the site or sign up for a time slot at Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity Web site at http://www.clemson.edu/~habitat. Community members who want to help can volunteer after the house has been moved to its site in Central. They can contact the Pickens County Habitat for Humanity chapter at (864) 855-2926 or through e-mail at habitat@clemson.edu to sign up.

For those unable to work on the house, there are other ways to help:

  • Purchase a square foot of the house for $25. The money will go toward the cost of building materials for the house, which totals approximately $45,000; or
  • become a foundation donor by pledging $100 every year.

Information about monetary donations is also available on the Habitat for Humanity Web site.

The public is invited to tour the house on Homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 20, on Bowman Field.

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