TOMS RIVER, NJ - It was an Easter break Brendan Gill is less likely to forget, memorable in many ways. Instead of spending the week of March 24 lazing on a porch, the 17-year-old Monsignor Donovan High School junior was helping to build a porch. Some of his friends, fellow students, were doing similar work: installing windows, or putting in a staircase. "We did a lot of real building, six or seven hours a day, for the four days we were there," said Gill, of Beachwood. "We thought we were going to be doing busy work; instead, I was doing some hammering," said Meagan Brosnan, 16, of Island Heights.
Gill and Brosnan were among the almost dozen students of the Toms River school's Habitat for Humanity chapter who spent their Easter break helping to renovate two homes in Bridgeport, Conn., in conjunction with Habitat For Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County. That chapter, an affiliate of Habitat For Humanity International, as with all chapters, concerns itself with building affordable houses for people.
Monsignor Donovan's group had previously helped Northern Ocean Habitat For Humanity with houses in Lakehurst and Brick, and are planning to help at a home in South Toms River, the groundbreaking for which is Sunday. "I'm excited with what we learned in Bridgeport, and want to bring those lessons here," to the Northern Ocean Habitat chapter, Brosnan said. "Perhaps we can do multiple builds," such as renovation or new construction of multifamily housing units, similar to what they did in Bridgeport, Gill said. "That would help a lot more people."
For many of the students, it was their first trip outside Toms River. "I thought the city was rough. Thankfully, we worked inside," Gill said. "I live in a little bubble," said 16-year-old Kristina Majeski of Toms River. "I thought we'd be staying in a beat-up church," not realizing there were "two Connecticuts," she said. (The students stayed in Bridgeport at Golden Hill United Methodist Church, described on its Web site as a "beautiful gothic structure" whose construction was partially financed by Andrew Carnegie.)
The Monsignor Donovan students helped with rehabilitating a three-story Victorian brownstone apartment, composed of between 12 to 15 units, as well as a two-family home in the city's Washington Park neighborhood. According to the Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut, noted showman P. T. Barnum created Washington Park at the turn of the 20th century.
Bridgeport is in Fairfield County, known as Connecticut's Gold Coast for the wealth concentrated in that southwestern section of the state. But as jobs and people heading for the suburbs left Bridgeport, so did its fortunes, leaving Bridgeport as one of the poorest cities in Connecticut, the Mutual Housing Association said. Now, economic growth everywhere else has spurred an interest in redeveloping Bridgeport.
"They (the Monsignor Donovan students) were a very strong group. We're proud of them," said Jacques Charles, Fairfield County Habitat's construction warehouse manager. Charles added, "When they were leaving we were saying how happy we are to have them do this kind of work. If every group could do the same, that would be a wonderful thing."
The students also served meals at the church's soup kitchen, as well as met one of the home's partner families. "They were full of gratitude. We were happy to be helping them," Gill said. He added, "I was disappointed we had to stop" after four days of work. But Gill, slated to be president next year of Monsignor Donovan's Habitat chapter, said the group plans on returning to Bridgeport. "I felt good doing something to help other people," said Briana Ott, 16, of Little Egg Harbor.
Source: APP.com