Dec. 12, 2013
For Immediate Release

 

By Kasey Ricketts, student news writer

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — “Repair Affair” is a project in which all Campbellsville University students participate as freshmen. Students go out into the community and spend the day helping build ramps, roofs or decks onto homes that are in need of them.

“It was a great experience to be able to help those in need. It really made me appreciate the things I have a lot more,” freshman Rosemary Flores of Staten Island, N.Y. said.

Flores is one of several hundred students who helped in their class titled “FIRST CLASS.”

To help students learn about the Christian servant leadership at Campbellsville University, Repair Affair is a service project organized by Kentucky Heartland Outreach, a ministry founded and launched by CU in 2000.

Campbellsville University partners with KHO, an organization that seeks to provide safe, warm and dry homes to homeowners who could otherwise not afford such needed home repairs, to provide service projects for FIRST CLASS small groups to complete together as a class. They build decks and wheelchair ramps and repair roofs for families in need.

All Campbellsville freshmen are required to attend “FIRST CLASS.” The importance of this class is to help incoming freshman meet people, get comfortable with the newness of college and have a place to turn to for help, according to Dr. Ted Taylor, director of the program.

Each one of the students in FIRST CLASS is freshman with one or two mentors who act as teachers. They help the students with whom their classes are, learn life lessons and give advice.

Campbellsville University students work on roofing with Kentucky Heartland Outreach. (Campbellsville University Photo by Kasey Ricketts)

“Repair affair is important for the FIRST CLASS students because it gives them the opportunity to help someone they may never see again. It's a beautiful experience,” Sadie Mills of Hardyville, Ky., a mentor, said.

During Repair Affair, the students worked on several different homes and helped different families in need.

“The ‘Repair Affair' brings FIRST CLASS together in a servant leadership experience that blesses families in our county with home repairs,” Taylor said. “When I see the bonding that takes place with our students and the appreciation shown by the homeowners, I know this has God's blessing on it,” he said.

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,600 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master's degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.