On Saturday, Feb. 17, both the Bluffton University’s men’s soccer team, as well as the men’s golf team volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Lima, Ohio. The golf team volunteered in the morning, and the soccer team followed in the afternoon. The Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, faith-based housing ministry that partners with low-income families and the community to eliminate substandard housing throughout the Lima area.
“We are here to try to provide a world that has affordable, decent housing for everyone,” said Mark Suderman, volunteer coordinator for Habitat for Humanity, and former Bluffton faculty member. “We do build houses, but we also raise money to be able to afford to make the mortgage payments for these people as low as possible. It’s a zero interest mortgage payment for them so that helps and with volunteer labor like we had today, that’s the kind of things that lowers the cost of those houses, as well.”
The Habitat’s principles include: demonstrating the the love of Jesus Christ, focus on shelter, advocate for affordable housing, promote dignity and hope, and support sustainable and transformational development.
“Our goal is to try to make sure that we have opportunities for everyone to have a good house,” said Suderman. “The Restore here that we worked today at, basically they are selling these new and used, items to the public. That money then get funnelled back into Habitat to help buy materials for building to help supplement the kinds of costs that we have here.”
The Habitat for Humanity is installing new flooring in the upcoming weeks. The golf team, as well as the soccer team, helped clear the floor in preparation for that process. They helped move all the items from the Restore into storage units. Some of those items included dressers, desks, bathtubs, sinks and other miscellaneous furniture. The teams also took down the racks and shelves that the items were displayed on.
“It was a great experience to be able to give back to the community for a good cause,” said Julian LaVallee, freshman golfer. “Knowing that our service is able to help contribute to the Habitat for Humanities goals in any way is such a great way to be involved in the community while keeping the conviction of service from Bluffton in full view.”
“Community service is important because we need to give back to those who are not as fortunate as we are,” said David Malaquias, assistant men’s soccer coach. “They need our help, and we should be doing everything we can to help them.”
The soccer and golf teams are not the only teams that participate in service activities.
The volleyball team volunteered during their preseason by landscaping at Maple Crest Senior Living Village in Bluffton. The team of 23 pulled weeds for two hours accomplishing what would’ve been a whole days of work for the grounds crew.
The baseball team volunteered at Children’s Mentoring Connection of Hancock County, where they taught baseball skills to children, at Bluffton Elementary in the second grade, where they read with the students for a week, and during the Christmas season they helped the kids with their Santa’s Workshop project. They adopted families through Allen County Children Services for Christmas and bought presents and other items for three Lima families.
The baseball team is currently raising money for the Vs. Cancer Foundation. Which is an organization that that supports pediatric cancer patients and their families. On Feb. 27 the team will be shaving their heads in The Commons during lunch. For more information about the Vs. Cancer Foundation or to donate click here.
