February 21, 2016
MARSHALL NEWS MESSENGER (2/21/16) - East Texas Baptist University sophomore Austin Damron joined staff and his fellow university students on Saturday to help build a home for a Marshall single mother and her two children as part of Tigers Serve Day.
“I’ve worked at this Habitat for Humanity house twice, once a couple of weeks ago,” he said on Saturday. “It’s so cool to see how the house has developed during that time.”
Damron is a member of the university’s Student Foundation Organization which selects different areas around the community to serve each month.
“We plan different projects in different areas of the city,” Damron said. “In March we will be going to Day Springs Ranch.”
Damron said serving the community is something the university believes in and encourages its students to do.
“ETBU as a whole will have students serving in the community every week,” Damron said. “Today we’ve been laying shingles down on the roof of the house and other students will be here during spring break to work that whole week.”
Marshall resident Pat Clayton and the new home’s owner Tamika Hall were happy to have the university come out and help.
“There’s been students and community members here every week, throughout the week and on the weekends,” Hall said. “I’m excited. My kids are excited. We can’t wait to move in. It’s supposed to be completed in June. I bring my kids by here everyday to see it so they can know the process of how it was built and follow along with every things that’s been done.”
Clayton has taken pictures every week of the progress of the house and the volunteers who have come to build it.
“This is special to me because my cousin donated the lot for this house,” Clayton said Saturday. “This was my grandmother’s lot. When she passed, she gave it to her daughter and when she passed, she gave it to her daughter, my cousin. My cousin lives in California and didn’t need this land so she donated it to Habitat for Humanity.”
The three bedroom/ two bathroom house is slightly ahead of schedule despite some turns of bad weather.
“We’ve had volunteers here each week and it’s coming along well,” Nesbitt Baptist Church member Scott Seeley said. “I’d like to see some more churches get involved. This is a blessing that touches the lives of many others. When the house is built and Ms. Hall moves in, she will be able to tell her children how God provided this house for them.”
Tigers Serve Day is a wrap up to this weeks’ inaugural celebration of ETBU’s 13th President Blair Blackburn who was also at the house working Saturday along with his wife Michelle.
(Used by permission www.marshallnewsmessenger.com. Story by MNM Education reporter Bridget Ortigo.)