High Schoolers For Humanity

Home is a place for family dinners, holiday celebrations, lazy days, and peaceful nights. Habitat for Humanity works to make sure that no family is without this necessity. Years ago, RMHS was home to a Habitat for Humanity club that has since dissolved. Students have recently begun to express interest in reviving it in hopes of volunteering time and energy to the organization.

With the mission “to put God’s love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope,” Habitat is a nonprofit, Christian housing ministry that works to end poverty housing. To do this, the organization utilizes donations and volunteers to repair and refurbish houses as well as to build new ones. As explained on the organization’s website, Habitat envisions “a world where everyone has a decent place to live.”

Juniors Emma Loughlin, Alyssa Carangelo, and Julia Hand share this vision and have teamed up to ressurect RMHS’s Habitat for Humanity club. The turnout at the first meeting on Tuesday, September 22 was incredible: Over 70 students signed up for the club in support of the cause.

Loughlin, Carangelo, Hand, and the club’s staff supervisor, Ms. Jessica Bailey, recently volunteered for Habitat on a day-trip to Danvers, where they helped clean, paint, and lay tiles. At the club’s first meeting, the girls recounted their experience, mentioning that they were able to meet the family who would be living in the house, which made their work that much more personal and rewarding. Plus, Ms. Bailey explained, volunteering with the club, whether it’s for the day, or for the in-the-works week-long trip in the summer of 2016, will count towards community service hours, which are especially helpful for freshmen or for National Honors Society candidates and members.

The club’s purpose and goals are best described by co-president Emma Loughlin: “We made this club with the hope to help others, not only who live near us, but also people around the country. We hope to go on day trips each month to help those close to us and then spend a week working in another state to help those far away from us who may have been hurt by a terrible storm or just cannot provide for themselves.” RMHS ’s club is fully representative of Habitat’s vision and mission statement.

Although the issue of poverty housing does not directly affect many citizens of Reading, it is admirable that dozens of students are willing to reach beyond their own community with the aim to improve the lives of others. “I can’t imagine not having a place to call home, and with this club, we’ll work to make sure that more people have this necessity,” says Alyssa Carangelo.

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