CAS Opportunities for Upper School Students
Kelley Carstens with CAS Coordinator Tobin Bechtel and his daughter Meghan outside the newly-completed Thompson home. More photos
Last Fall, AIS students formed a CAS group called Habitat for Humanity. Our group, along with thousands of other high schools, is a small support group of the much larger, international non-profit organization of Habitat for Humanity. Since 1976, Habitat has built more than 50,000 houses for families throughout the United States and another 100,000-plus houses in communities around the world. Now at work in 92 countries, Habitat builds a house every 26 minutes.
Through the group at AIS, students are able to connect to the community of Atlanta by working with other volunteers and families. Over the course of the school year, more than twenty members of our group have volunteered at two house builds in Roswell, putting in over 150 hours collectively. One of the volunteers, Lisa Spinnato, said, “It was a great experience. I now feel like I’m paying back the community.” At the actual builds, we were able to work with the community and meet the people whose lives we are changing.
In February, we pledged $5,000 as a sponsor of an all high school house build for the Thompson family. So far we have raised about $2,200 and are still raising money with activities around the school, such as candy sales and bake sales, a parking spot raffle, and supervised water balloon ‘wars.’ We are still striving to reach our commitment to help our family. Our CAS group recently received an award from Habitat for its involvement and accomplishments. We are proud of this past year and hope to continue to provide shelters for families around Atlanta.
New Partnership with Toolbank
The AIS chapter of Habitat for Humanity has formed a new partnership with Toolbank, a non-profit organization that lends tools to other non-profit organizations and community organizations. Toolbank also has a program in which volunteers help to repair and rebuild dilapidated houses and reconnect the inhabitants with their neighborhood organization. Through this, Toolbank attempts to rejuvenate a house and its inhabitants and also revitalize the community and strengthen ties between homeowners and their neighborhood organization. Our group will send volunteers to help rebuild houses, but will also assist in fundraising for Toolbank. This collaboration with Toolbank will allow many younger students (12-15 year-olds) at AIS to form ties with Habitat in the hope that they will become active members when they are old enough (16+), thus creating a larger and more active base for Habitat for Humanity at AIS.