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8 Choffin students helping to build Habitat house
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Laquail Brooks, a junior and a student in the construction technology program at Choffin Career and Technical Center, hammers in nails on the frame of a house for Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County.
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Juniors Eva Baker, left, and Aaron Clinkscale, with Choffin’s construction technology program work on the house, which will become home to a Struthers family.
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Choffi n Career and Technical Center construction-technology students Jhordan Jackson, center, and Laquail Brooks, both juniors, under instruction from teacher Kevin Sinkele , left, work on a house for Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County.
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
YOUGNSTOWN
Laquail Brooks, 16, flips through the pages of plans for the 1,200-square-foot house he and seven of his classmates at Choffin Career & Technical Center are helping to build.
The students are juniors in the school’s construction-technology program taught by Kevin Sinkele. The house, which will become a home for a Struthers family, is the latest project of Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County.
“This was the first wall,” Laquail explained, showing his and his classmates’ handiwork.
His mother is a carpenter, and he’s built smaller things on his own as well as a brick garage with his father and brothers. But the Habitat house is the largest wooden structure he’s helped to build.
It was a first for his classmate, Jhordan Jackson, 16, too.
“I’ve always liked construction, but I never had the chance to actually do it before,” Jhordan said.
Now that he has some real experience, it confirms his career interest, he said.
Sinkele said it’s the fourth house that construction-technology students have built for Habitat. They plan to work on a fifth one this spring.
Work on the house started at the beginning of the school year.
“It gives them real-world experience — working on a real house — not just little projects,” Sinkele said.
The student’s work is expected to wrap up this week, and next week, a truck will come to move the framed house to 111 Narcissa Ave., Struthers.
Monica Craven, executive director of Habitat, said their work means the project will be completed even faster.
“It’s really helpful,” she said. “It makes it so the first day volunteers are out there is extremely productive.
Framing walls, which is what the Choffin students do, involves some technical expertise, Craven said.
“It’s not something just anyone can do,” she said.
Before the Choffin students started participating in builds, Habitat personnel framed the walls on their own at the site and instructed volunteers in how to do it.
“It happened a lot slower,” Craven said. “It extended the builds probably a week or sometimes longer.”
The three-bedroom house with a full basement will be a new home for the Rodriguez family, which includes a mother, father and three daughters.
The Mahoning County Neighborhood Stabilization Program is one of the sponsors for the project.
A ground-blessing ceremony is set for noon Sunday at the site, and plans call for the family to be in their home by Thanksgiving.