Freshman Amod Gautam continued working, even after he developed a blister on his finger from hammering for so long.
Gautam was only one of hundreds of volunteers who have dedicated their time and sweat to the "Blitz Build" project, which aims to condense months of work on a new home into just weeks of intensified labor.
Although construction of the house began Sept. 26, the project heightened considerably over the weekend as part of the Founders' Weekend activities honoring President Nan Keohane's 10 years of service to the University. Senior Taylor Hayden, who helped organize the Blitz Build, said the project was in part a celebration of the Neighborhood Partnership Initiative, which Keohane helped start.
"This is an effort to show the amazing community support that has been created as a result of the Duke-Durham partnership," Hayden said. "I was really excited to see so many people working on it."
Keohane spoke at a wall-raising ceremony Saturday, which was well-attended by Trustees and Keohane's family, student and Habitat for Humanity volunteers, and Ted and Kris Katroscik, who will move into the home once it is completed in January or February.
"Duke and Durham are not two separate entities, but a seamless set of neighborhoods that we more often need to recognize as part of the same whole," Keohane said. "I wanted to remind all of us that ever since we launched the community partnership in 1996, affordable housing has been one of our goals."
After her speech, Keohane, alongside the new homeowners and volunteers, helped to raise the last wall of the nascent Habitat home in an effort she likes to call "The Glory Work." Keohane then presented the Katrosciks with a Blue Devil flag and pole in hopes that they would fly the flag with "great pride" in front of their home.
Habitat for Humanity of Durham has worked with the Duke community on houses in the past, but construction of the Katroscik's home marks the first time the two teams have joined forces in a Blitz Build. For the project, Habitat for Humanity of Durham has provided house plans, a potential homeowner family and a group of industrious "Geezers"--local senior men who volunteer regularly with Habitat.
Heyden and fellow project co-coordinators seniors Kate Henderson and Mandy Anderson hope to maintain the high levels of enthusiasm for the build, even after the home is transported by trailer next weekend to its permanent site at 1015 Berkeley Street. Forty percent of the construction will be completed on East Campus, and the final 60 percent of the labor will be carried out after the move.
The work schedule is especially tight since the coordinators pledged to complete the project in 30 days, as opposed to taking the normal three-and-a-half months to build a home. To aid in the workload of constructing the Katroscik home, the Geezers will be helping out almost every day until the house is complete.
And in fact, Saturday served as proof that the Geezers and students could work together to keep up the rapid pace of the Blitz Build project. Whenever a volunteer was unsure of what to do to help out, a Geezer was right there to give them a new task to accomplish.
"At first it looked like this Blitz Build project was going against the tide and it was hard to raise money," said Rah Bickley, Habitat director of development. "But now it has blossomed into an exciting experiment where students and Geezers are all working side by side."
The work of organizing the project initially fell on the shoulders of Heyden, Henderson and Anderson, who have raised $35,000 of the $44,000 needed for the home's construction since the project was proposed in January of this year. The three jointly decided to take on the project after being inspired by Kat Farrell, Trinity '03, who hatched the idea in a leadership class taught by Tony Brown, professor of the practice of public policy studies.
"The main goal of having Blitz Build on campus is to get a lot of students involved," Henderson said. "Hopefully they will come to think of service as part of their Duke career."
Hayden echoed Henderson, adding that the project succeeded in involving many who might not otherwise have been interested. Although about 300 students had already signed up for Blitz Build at the activities fair at the beginning of the semester, Hayden said they managed to catch a few more volunteers who just happened to be wandering by the East Campus site Saturday afternoon.
"Some people were just walking by and thought it looked interesting. We had open volunteer spots, so we were happy to oblige," Hayden said.
The project interested people of all ages. In addition to freshmen volunteers, a number of quads, selective living groups and fraternities also helped with construction.
"I found out about this whole project about 30 minutes ago, but I'm interested and I have a hammer," said sophomore Charlie Benzyk of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, who was helping with roofing construction Saturday afternoon.
Non-students were also pitching in this weekend. Duke parent and alumna Elizabeth Peloso, Engineering '78, said she thought Blitz Build seemed like a fun activity her family could do together.
Even the Katrosciks themselves pitched in as part of a Habitat "sweat equity" policy that requires Habitat homeowners to provide 250 volunteer labor hours on a Habitat home--not necessarily their own--before they can move in. These 250 hours can be provided by the homeowners and their families and friends, all of whom contribute to the total effort.
But "sweat equity" requirement aside, the Katrosciks exhibited a measure of pride in their work as Saturday's activities went on. When many volunteers marked their involvement in the project by spray painting their names on the house's siding Saturday, the Katrosciks' names were right there with them.
"We put our names on the side of the house too," said Ted Katroscik.
Karen Hauptman contributed to this story.
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