Millard Fuller, president of Habitat for Humanity International, honored Rensselaer students for establishing the 700th Habitat for Humanity campus chapter last Monday. “I salute you, and thank you for being the outstanding chapter that you are here at RPI,” he said.
During Fuller’s speech, he emphasized the importance of young people as an excellent asset of accomplishing the Habitat for Hu-manity’s goal, “Dynamism of students as leaders is one strength we have,” he added, “You are not chosen by accident.”
Later, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson said that RPI is proud to be the home of a campus chapter.
Rensselaer students, together with the Rensselaer County Habitat for Humanity, have a plan to build houses in the neighborhood. They are now searching for potential sites, with the help of RPI Neighborhood Renewal. The major concern of neighbors is the impact Habitat houses may have on their property values. “But it wasn’t a big deal,” said President of Rensselaer Habitat for Humanity David Backman.
As of now, a consensus on the site has not been reached. “As soon as we find the perfect site, we will purchase it, go to the city of Troy to get an appropriate approval, and then start building a house, hopefully this summer,” he added. The house will take about five to six months to finish.
Habitat for Humanity was founded by Fuller and his wife in 1976. Originally the program was called Partnership Housing, an idea that came from the partnership with God as well as with other people. To date, Habitat for Humanity has built about 125,000 houses around the world, including in the Philippines, Alaska, Guatemala, Nepal, India, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Russia, and Pakistan. They hope to build their first house in China by the end of this year and also to send team to Afghanistan.
The first campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity was created at Texas university on November 30, 1987. Since that time, Habitat for Humanity has been an ever-growing movement. It has spread to students at 700 campuses. “We are honored that now RPI is officially joining this family, this movement of love—of activating faith. We have to light candles to make the world better,” said Fuller.
“These kids are showing a lot of responsibility and community spirit,” Backman said. He expressed his sorrow for the seniors who have been helping the Rens-selaer Habitat for Humanity for the last three years and who will be graduating and moving on. “Hopefully they’ll get involved with the Habitat for Humanity in their community,” he remarked.
