DATE: October 29, 2008

CONTACT: Chris Heavner, 864-654-4232
pastorc@clemson.edu

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

Habitat for Humanity to build ‘green’ house for homecoming

Home will be built to LEED certification standards

CLEMSON — For 15 years, Clemson University’s Habitat for Humanity chapter has put the “home” in homecoming with its annual homecoming house build on Bowman Field. More than 500 student volunteers will brave the chilly fall air to work on the house Nov. 4 through 14.

The Habitat house on Bowman has become as much a part of Clemson’s Homecoming tradition as the colorful displays that student organizations build to celebrate the week.

“When the Clemson family assembles for homecoming, hundreds of alumni come to the house because they remember working on it themselves as students,” said Lutheran campus minister Chris Heavner, adviser to Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity chapter. “The floats, the band, the spirit of homecoming are all ways in which students build memories, and the house has become a part of that.”

This year’s house will be a bit different from the past 15 houses built for homecoming: it is being built according to a design created by a team of students in a 2006 competition to create an environmentally friendly Habitat house. The house includes features that maximize energy efficiency and water conservation and reduce waste in the construction process, said Heavner.

This is the fourth house built by the Clemson chapter with this “green” design, but the first “green” house built on Bowman Field for homecoming.

Volunteers will work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day on the house. While the house is on campus, volunteer opportunities are limited to Clemson students, but once the house is moved off campus, anyone can come out to help with the build. To sign up to volunteer or donate money or equipment to the project, visit http://www.clemson.edu/~habitat.

After Nov. 14, the house will be moved to its permanent location on Copperfield Drive in Central, where construction will be completed.

Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity chapter was named Campus Chapter of the Year by Habitat for Humanity International, and Clemson students will travel to St. Louis Nov. 7 to 9 to receive the award. While in St. Louis, the group will make a presentation to other collegiate chapters and youth organizations about energy-efficient designs. As part of the award, Clemson’s chapter received a $20,000 grant to travel abroad for a Habitat for Humanity project. The group has chosen to go to Guatemala in August 2009.

The Homecoming house will be the chapter’s 23rd house built in Pickens County. Students from the chapter also have traveled to Africa twice to work on houses there. The Clemson chapter has built more houses than any other collegiate chapter in the nation.

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Editors: Images are file photos from previous Habitat for Humanity homecoming projects.