Welcome Back to Welcome Home!

There are so many opportunities at Mercyhurst to become involved, and the year always starts out with my favorite version... Service day! The easiest way to encourage the freshman to get to know someone random is by taking them into the city of Erie to do something better than catching an extra hour of sleep. I love service day. I remember my own service day, and looking back I had the opportunity to make friends that I still have today. Also it is a great way to learn some of Mercyhurst's core values, including being an Ambassador of Service!

A group of freshman students and me at the Mercy Center for Woman this year.
We worked hard and brought our smiles to make their days better.

But this year especially, Mercyhurst is doing more than just one big day of service. This new year of University has encouraged to do more! In July, Mercyhurst University announced plans to collaborate with Habitat for Humanity in Erie and build The House That 'Hurst Built. This entire build will just take about four weeks, and is a gift back to the city and the community that help and involve our Mercy family.   


My favorite part about the build is that you don't have to be Mr. or Mrs. Fix-it to participate. You may never have used a power tool, but we still are encouraging students to go! It is all about the experience of giving back and involving multiple people on campus. 

I have been to the site four times now since the project started August 27th. We are now down to the last week of the Hurst house build, and it has been incredible. I have seen the house from foundation, hopefully to finish. We will be dedicating the house to the family that will own it at our homecoming weekend. All of the students, faculty, employees, and friends of the University will see what a difference four weeks and a lot of hands can have.

Like I said I have had a lot of great experiences at the house the past few weeks. I got to watch the roof go up. I helped screw in drywall for all of the interior, while friends were hanging the siding on the inside. 

This past weekend the Ambassador club worked a morning and afternoon shift at the site. A majority of us were left to sand down the filled over screw holes and drywall cracks to make sure the house was ready for interior painting! That is when I really knew it was coming together. I will be posting more pictures of the recent build in another post so you can all see the progress that has been made! So proud to be a Laker and do good!