A network of students working through Dartmouth Habitat for Humanity will for the first time take on the primary role in providing an Upper Valley family with a new home this summer and fall, with construction tentatively scheduled to kick off this week.
Though Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity will maintain a few responsibilities in the creation of the "Dartmouth House" (formerly the '04 House), including holding the mortgage, the project will be completed almost entirely through the efforts of Dartmouth students, according to Mike Bober '02, the Dartmouth Partners for Community Service Intern for Upper Valley Habitat for the Dartmouth House.
While a group of 10-15 highly-committed Dartmouth Habitat members will take on additional responsibilities including administrative work and fundraising, construction of the Dartmouth House will depend on the efforts of a much larger group.
Dartmouth Habitat members are not, however, worried about tracking down sufficient volunteers.
"Usually, we have more interested people than spots," Bober said, noting that only a limited number of students can participate in site work each day because of the need for a skilled supervisor.
Dartmouth Habitat members nonetheless hope to involve as many students as possible, regardless of their past experience.
"You put in as much as you want," Student Chair Li Jun Xian '04 said, noting that many students may wish to help out for just a day or week.
The organization's summer Blitzmail list, according to Bober, presently stands at around 250 students.
Once it is completed, single mother Marlene DeNutte and her two children, six-year-old Deven and four-year-old Morgan, will move into the new home near Lake Mascoma in Enfield, N.H.
The DeNuttes' current residence, described by Bober as "awful," contains leaking ceilings, rotted window frames, a crumbling foundation, an exposed fuse box and a dirt-floor basement that was flooded at the time of Ms. DeNutte's interview with the selection committee, among other defects.
The DeNutte family was chosen from a group of between 12 and 16 families considered by a selection committee consisting of nine Upper Valley representatives and three Dartmouth students -- Bober, Jean-Paul Dedam '02 and Fawn Draucker '04.
After the founding of Dartmouth Habitat for Humanity in 1996, participating students had simply supplied site work hours for Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity houses on scheduled dates.
Habitat at Dartmouth took a step forward in the fall at 2000 when they for the first time collaborated with Upper Valley Habitat on a building project under conditions of "equal partnership."
The idea to build an '04 house was in part motivated by Dartmouth Habitat's continued growth beyond its original function of assisting Upper Valley Habitat.
"We had so many volunteers that we couldn't accommodate them," Xian said.
Two members of the class of 2003, Christina LaMontagne and Jennifer Ross, created the project last summer.
The Dartmouth House's intended completion date falls six to eight months in the future, but Bober warned that the process could extend longer than the usual period due to unforeseen obstacles and Dartmouth Habitat's lack of previous experience in heading up such efforts.
Construction was originally slated to begin at the start of Summer term but was slowed by processes including the acquisition of permits, according to Bober.
The house itself will cost upwards of $70,000, with the hiring of a site supervisor raising expenses another $10-15,000. The Byrne Foundation and the Tucker Foundation's Board of Visitors granted the largest donations, with additional gifts coming from parents of the '04 class and recipients of a letter-writing campaign.
Fundraising efforts are ongoing, as some $20,000 has not yet been acquired.
Each week, four slots will be available for student site work volunteers -- 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 9 p.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
For parents' weekend, family members of the '04 class will have an opportunity to help out with site work next Saturday.
