Pitt-Greensburg students build bonds, outfit Tennessee homes on Habitat for Humanity trip

Mar. 22—Measure twice and cut once is the sage advice long applied to working with wood.

But first you have to know how to use a tape measure.

That's among the home improvement skills Pitt-Greensburg student volunteers picked up during the school's recent spring break. They headed to Tennessee for a week to help prepare affordable dwellings for families as part of an effort by the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.

Sizing angled wood trim for two of three homes under construction in a Nashville suburb was particularly challenging for

Maddie Wysocki, who is president of Habitat's Pitt-Greensburg student chapter.

"I'd never learned to use a tape measure before," said Wysocki, a junior psychology major from Burgettstown. "It was time-­consuming.

"The only thing I'd done before was painting. Once I joined Habitat, I learned a lot of new things. We learned how to use a table saw, and we used levels."

The group of 19 Pitt-Greensburg students, four alumni and one staffer worked about seven hours per day, with guidance from construction coordinators with the Habitat affiliate serving Tennessee's Williamson and Maury counties.

Referring to levels to install kitchen cabinets and window frames without getting them out of line was an involved process for Hank Polley, the Habitat chapter's

building chairman.

Things went more smoothly when the volunteers ascended ladders to paint exterior walls.

"We knocked out pretty much the whole outside of the house in a day or two," said Polley, a senior biology major from Pittsburgh's Greenfield neighborhood.

Sawing the wooden trim was a daunting task for Caraline Galanti, a sophomore nursing major from Collegeville.

"It's weird the way you have to move the saw" to create a required 45-degree angle, she said. "That's not my strong suit. It was all fairly new to me.

"I enjoyed using a nail gun, though."

Polley envisioned the home's eventual occupants using the kitchen he was helping to equip. Galanti got to meet one of them: a woman with two daughters who, in accordance with Habitat guidelines, put in some "sweat equity" by painting and applying caulk.

"She was talking about her plan to move in toward the end of June," Galanti said. "She was really excited for her daughters. They've got their own rooms."

Galanti "liked the idea of going on the trip since I'm basing my career on helping people."

Also pitching in was William Ritz, who is Polley's roommate and a friend of Galanti's.

"I love this type of volunteer work," said Ritz, a senior business management major from Gibsonia. "I just wanted to do whatever I could to help. This is a life-changing thing for the people who are involved."

A member of Hampton Presbyterian Church, he previously volunteered for the congregation's mission trips to places in Kentucky, Puerto Rico and Belize.

Polley has assisted the Westmoreland County Food Bank and a local animal shelter as a member of Pitt-Greensburg's Outdoor Adventure and Community Service club. He also has served as a counselor at a summer camp for kids with diabetes in Rockwood — one he used to attend as a camper.

"It's nice to give those kids the same experience I was given," Polley said.

When work was over for the day at the Tennessee homes, the students headed to a local church to play ping pong, cards and role-playing games or engage in corn hole contests. They slept on air mattresses on the church floor.

They also participated in an outing to a bowling alley and a jaunt to Nashville, where Galanti enjoyed the city's country music milieu, Polley admired the animals at the zoo and Ritz savored Southern barbecue cuisine.

Throughout the week, the Pitt-Greensburg volunteers had the opportunity to build new or stronger bonds with fellow Habitat chapter members.

"When you're living with someone for days on end, 24 hours, you get to know people a lot better," Polley said. "Working together, you have to figure out problems together."

Helping to drive progress forward was an informal competition among volunteers assigned between the two houses that were the primary focus of the work.

At one point, there was an organized relay race between two Habitat teams. The losers were responsible for cleaning up the work area that day.

"You would run with a bucket of paint, drill in a screw and hammer a nail, and then the next person would go," Wysocki said of the race.

It took an extended community on the Pitt-Greensburg campus and beyond to make the Habitat trip possible. While each of the students paid $150 toward expenses, a university-related crowdfunding platform brought in more than $4,000, and the campus Student Government Association chipped in about $6,000.

In addition to working in Tennessee, the Pitt-Greensburg chapter has been helping the Central Westmoreland Habitat affiliate with its local home rehabilitation efforts. The latest project is a house in Lowber.

The students also assist at the organization's Hempfield ReStore, where it sells excess inventory and donated items.

The Tennessee trip marked the 17th year the Pitt-Greensburg chapter has traveled south to assist with Habitat projects.

The volunteers "come back with more confidence and more connections, and just as better people," Brian Root said. Adviser for the campus Habitat chapter, he has taken part in all but two of its trips.

"It takes a special person to begin with to give up a week to make the trip," Root said. For most daily meals, "They're eating whatever people donate from the community. You've got to be flexible on this trip."

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .