Two rivals came together to work for the same cause last week – building new homes for two families who were affected by the April 27 tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa.
More than 60 University of Alabama students and 30 Auburn University students worked on the Habitat for Humanity’s House United building project.
Art Pearce, executive director for the Alabama Association of Habitat Affiliates, saw the building project as the perfect opportunity to unite two chapters and improve the living conditions of the two families.
“This project brings together America’s greatest rivalry in a joint effort to improve the lives of Habitat partner families across the state,” Pearce said. “We thought it was appropriate to come to Tuscaloosa, and the group leaders from both universities were able to put a group of their current students and alumni together to be a part of this building process.”
Kiara Summerville, a junior majoring in public relations, saw this as an opportunity to give back, despite the rivalry.
“Our communities were able to come together and put aside our rivalry,” Summerville said. “It’s proof that despite what we may believe in during football season, we can come together to give back to people who lost everything.”
Bob Johnson, executive director for Habitat Tuscaloosa, said people are often able to come together on Habitat work sites to work towards a cause that will improve the lives of victims, regardless of what the rivalries may mean.
“Our volunteers are always able to put their differences aside to come together on a Habitat site and work to better the lives of these people,” Johnson said. “It’s not about which university you come from or what you believe in, Habitat volunteers have the goal to ultimately serve families and be united.”
Bev Leigh, III, development director for the West Alabama Chapter of the American Red Cross, said that the amount of people who have volunteered is proof to people’s ability to become united.
“The amount of support we’ve received speaks volumes about the people of our nation,” Leigh said. “We’ve had 22,000 volunteers for the Red Cross alone and a ton of representation across our country. It speaks volumes on the generosity from volunteers in support of the victims of the storms.”
But the Alabama and Auburn students weren’t the only volunteers – they were also joined by a number of corporate and church members, as well as a few members of the Kent State University football program.
Alan Ashby, assistant athletic director for communications at Kent State, saw the building project as the perfect opportunity to give back to the Tuscaloosa community.
“We thought, our season opener is here, and since Coach Saban graduated from our university, we have great ties to UA,” Ashby said. “We planned everything as best as we could and thought it was a small way that we could give back.”
Although the two homes were a great start to rebuilding damaged neighborhoods, Johnson said that Habitat is committed to continuing the rebuilding process in the neighborhoods that were damaged by the storms.
“Our goals are to rehab homes to where they are built better than they were before, as well as rebuild homes from the ground up,” Johnson said. “We plan on building a number of houses around these neighborhoods, and these two that we’ve started on are just the beginning.”
Wahnee Sherman, director of UA’s Community Service Center, said the goal is to ultimately have the two universities come together each year to give back to the Alabama community.
“We are looking forward to this being an annual event where the two institutions can come together to help benefit other areas of the state,” Sherman said.
Habitat has set the target date for finishing the first homes to be Sept. 1.
