Chico will be having its own version of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” when the construction management department starts its “Blitz Build.”
From Jan. 16-24, students and teachers will be building two houses in nine days on Ivy Street for Catalyst, a group dedicated to helping battered women in the Chico area. The 840-square-foot homes will both have two bedrooms and one bathroom.
Junior Pat Conroy is choosing to participate over his holiday break and has done programs like this with the construction management department before, he said. Last winter break, Conroy helped build sheds for families who lost their homes in the Concow fires and in 2008, he helped build houses in New Orleans.
“It’s cool,” Conroy said. “You learn a lot and meet a lot of people in the department, most of the teachers help in some way.”
Professor Chris Souder sees the benefits to students who participate in this community service-building project.
“Projects like this one show students the opportunity to do something like this in the real world,” he said. “They work together, different personalities and work skills blend together.”
Souder, who will be involved mainly in teaching techniques and overseeing scheduling, will show students how to manage a real-life construction project and keep an eye on cost control.
“So many kids want to be involved, you can’t just show up and start doing something,” Souder said. “You have to have foremen to report to.”
Though building in January may not be an ideal time for any construction worker, the entire worksite will be tented off to help keep construction on track, Souder said.
“That takes the weather element out of it,” he said. “However, as fast as it’s being built, it still has to be built to code.”
The code is where the city comes in. The city agreed to have an inspector on site any time of day or night to check the progress and finished product, Souder said.
“The inspector said he would be ready for any inspection,” Souder said. “It’s what you would expect for students who are busting their butts.”
Planning for this project started over summer and Professor David Shirah knew he had to have a new project to present to his students.
“We’re doing two houses because we have such an outpour in the number of students,” Shirah said. “We know when we showed up on day one the students would want to know what we’re doing over the break.”
Two of those students were junior Christina Pantera and senior Nikki Kantor who are two of the three project managers for the “Blitz Build.”
As project managers they will be in charge of the entire site, coordinating the participants and overseeing site safety, Pantera said.
“We’re throwing what we learned in school into the real world,” she said.
As managers they have felt a lot of pressure from the student body to get the project on the right track, but Pantera thinks it’s good pressure.
“We like it when everyone is excited,” she said. “That’s when we get the most involvement.”
If there was ever any question about whether the team of more than 154 student volunteers was going to be able to get the job done in nine days, the project managers and Shirah never let it cross their minds.
The team has three different plans in case something falls apart and, one way or another, the job will get done, Pantera said.
Student interest and involvement is what helped shape the project, Kantor said.
“If there wasn’t as much student interest, it wouldn’t get done,” she said. “I’m just really excited to see how it plays out.”
Lindsey Barrett can be reached at
lbarrett@theorion.com
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