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For the 2009 Spring Break, eleven members of the Park View High School football team will be traveling to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to spend their week away from school building houses while participating on a Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge project. This is the second time in the past three years that players have traveled to Forsyth County, having first participated in the spring of 2007.
Park View head football coach Andy Hill is excited about this opportunity for a couple of reasons: “Not only does this give our kids a chance to bond outside of the school and the weight room, but it also reinforces that commitment to serving one’s community and being part of something that’s bigger than yourself.”
Not only are the players volunteering their week away from the classroom, they were also responsible to raise over $3,000 to cover the cost of the trip. Thus, a monthly pancake breakfast was born to generate funds for the trip.
The Patriots conducted their breakfast fundraisers – featuring pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, coffee, and juice – as an “All You Can Eat” event on Valentine’s Day, and they followed up with their second breakfast this past March 14. The event is becoming a popular event, and Coach Hill has indicated that the monthly tradition will continue with the next breakfast being held on Saturday, April 18. He is excited because that breakfast will be conducted by the football class of 2012, and it will feature a slideshow and DVD of highlights from the 2009 Habitat trip.
The trip itself will begin on Sunday, April 5 when the participating players and chaperones (Coach Hill and his father will be chaperoning the trip) will depart from Park View High School at noon. The drive down to Winston-Salem will give players the opportunity to visit four colleges. The first stop will be Liberty University, which is of particular interest to the players because it serves as the site of the AA State Championship football games each fall. After leaving Liberty, the team will travel to Blacksburg to visit Virginia Tech, and they will spend Sunday night outside of Blacksburg. Monday morning will see the team complete the remaining two-hour drive to Winston-Salem, and upon arriving they will visit both Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University. Also scheduled for the trip, the team will travel home on Saturday, April 11 by traveling east through Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina, before heading north to conclude the week-long trip.
Players will work Tuesday through Friday, and there are currently two projects underway at Habitat Forsyth. Work projects vary from house to house, but players are expecting to invest a considerable effort to help move their assigned project towards completion.
Rising senior and 2009 co-captain, Michael Devaney expressed his thoughts about the trip in stating, “This is going to be a great trip, especially since we know that we are doing something to help a family in need. I’m hoping we get to meet the family (whose) house we are working on, but either way, it’s good to know that we’re doing something that will have a lasting and positive effect.” His thoughts are representative of many of his teammates, as the excitement surround the trip is evident in talking to those participating.
Coach Hill believes that this will be a great experience, and that it will be a chance to emphasize the “life skill” of leadership through service. He is encouraging all Park View football supporters to come to the April 18 Pancake Breakfast to see the slide show and DVD of the trip.
