Charlotte Employees Help Teen Students Build Habitat Homes

July 1, 2008 - The BE&K Building Group’s Charlotte office teamed with the Olympic Community of Schools during the 2007-2008 school year to build a house for a local needy family through Habitat for Humanity. The Olympic Community of Schools, which receives funding from the Bill Gates Foundation, is part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) – a longtime client of the BE&K Building Group. This particular CMS high school is an ideal community service partner for our firm in that Olympic’s Math/ Engineering track includes construction classes in its curriculum. The structure completed in mid-May is the first in a series of Habitat houses our two organizations plan to build on the school’s campus and then move to their permanent locations.

Over a nine-month period, BE&K Building Group volunteers supervised and worked alongside a student workforce comprised of Olympic high school juniors and seniors enrolled in the school’s advanced construction classes. A dedication ceremony at the home’s permanent address presented an opportunity to recognize the Olympic students who participated, as well as thank the community sponsors and BE&K Building Group subcontractors who so generously donated money, time and materials. Habitat for Humanity’s recipient family took occupancy of its new home in mid-June.

The BE&K Building Group’s Roger Brafford, superintendent, and Matthew Readling, project manager, first met with CMS and Olympic administrators last year to discuss how the BE&K Building Group could help Olympic math/engineering students obtain actual construction work experience while also benefitting the community. Together they developed a realistic construction schedule for the newly formed joint venture’s first Habitat house. Brafford and Readling, along with some family members, worked with the Olympic students throughout the process.

Brafford shared some background on how the partnership came about. “Olympic Community of Schools was looking for contractors interested in working with high school students, to teach and expose them to real world construction. We saw this as an opportunity to help the school and the teens enrolled in the program, as well as possibly intern some of the students for future career positions as superintendents and project managers. As a result of this effort, we have two Olympic graduates working with us this summer before going to college in the fall. One student is working on The Inspiration Networks – City of Light Corporate Campus in nearby Indian Land, South Carolina. The other is assigned to two of our CMS projects, the new Idlewild Elementary School and the South Mecklenburg High School Additions and Renovations.”

According to Brafford, Olympic school officials reported an overwhelming response from students who wanted to work on the Habitat house. Educators also noticed a direct correlation between the students working on the house and improvement in their grades and attendance. What they found most interesting, however, was that even though the school is situated in a highcrime area, there was not one single act of vandalism committed upon the house while it was on the school’s grounds. Project Manager Readling said, “Our Habitat house program with the Olympic Community of Schools is an ambitious endeavor that equips students – our industry’s future work force – with 21st century skill sets. The house not only provides shelter and affordable housing to a needy family, but also becomes an everlasting symbol of the leadership, charitable nature and character of the Olympic student body.”

In addition to contributions throughout the project by Roger Brafford and Matthew Readling, other BE&K Building Group employees (and family members) who helped put the finishing touches on the house included Brafford’s wife Martha; Heath Brafford, wife Dona and her daughter Taylor Thomas; Kate Moore; Eric Fix; Susan Epps, husband Roger and daughter Amy; Bob Lanzi; Robert Jackson; and Joe Stoyko.

The BE&K Building Group is set to begin work on another Habitat house with Olympic students this August with the project lasting throughout the 2008-2009 school year. Turnover to our next recipient family is scheduled for June 2009.

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