University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Softball Team Pitches in for Habitat for Humanity
3/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 27, 2009
By David Tisdale - 601.266.4499 Southern Miss Marketing and Public Relations
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Members of the University of Southern Mississippi softball team and coaching staff took a time out during spring break to go to bat for a local family in need of a new home.
Joined by students from Delta State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, team members participated in the Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge, helping construct a new home and adjoining storage shed in the Rawls Springs area.
Approximately 50 students took part in Habitat projects in the Hattiesburg area during the spring break, while more than 100 students from Southern Miss and other universities participated in community service projects across Mississippi, coordinated by the Southern Miss Office of Community Service Learning.
Many new Habitat homes now include an adjoining storage shed, which members of the softball team worked on last Wednesday morning. Megan Hill, a junior outfielder from Oak Grove, said the project was a good team-building exercise.
"We had to make sure the foundation was level and that it squared up before we put the flooring in, so communication and cooperation are important aspects of the work we did, just like during our practices and game situations," she said.
Delta State student Calandra Porter of Oxford said she didn't mind giving up her spring break to participate. "I'm happy to be helping someone else out, and learn some new skills in the process," she said. "We learned how to build a roof today."
"We wanted to come down and pick a place where our help was needed, so we chose this home in Rawls Springs," said Deepti Sreepathi, a junior at the University of Massachusetts. "It's been a great experience, and we've met a lot of great people who have the same passion as we do to help others."
Sreepathi admitted she wasn't very handy when she first volunteered to help with a Habitat home build, but has since become proficient in putting up drywall, among other home building skills. "I've learned to love it," she said.
Since its founding in 1992, the Southern Miss OCSL has served as the volunteer resource center and service hub for community service and service learning for all members of the university community. More than 40,000 hours annually are served in local communities and on campus.
"Community service is a very profound learning experience for these students as they get hands-on experience with these projects, and to understand what it means to give back," said Joshua Duplantis, manager for the Southern Miss OCSL who is also vice president of the Hattiesburg chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
"If we get them involved once, more often than not they want to volunteer again."
For more information about service opportunities with OCSL, call 601.266.5074; online, visit www.usm.edu/ocsl/
