By Selena
Stevens
The fund-raising activity
provided an opportunity for MCAP Director Mildred Bailey's students to apply math skills
they had learned in her program's classes..
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April
4, 2000 – (Lexington, Ky.) – On
March 28, middle and high school students in the University of Kentucky Minority College
Awareness Program presented the Lexington Habitat for Humanity with 31 houses. The
cardboard houses contained money the students had collected to support a new Habitat
initiative, “The House that Women Built.” “You could tell this was truly the students’ work,” said MCAP
Director Mildred Bailey. “Many of the boxes were full of quarters, dimes, nickels and
pennies.”
MCAP
is a program established by the governor and aimed at preparing minority youth for
college. The program centers on math and literary skills and utilizes parental involvement
to reach its goals.
Bailey decided to make the paper house collection a project
for her students after Habitat officials invited the program’s participation. In the
project, she saw an opportunity for her students to apply the math skills they learn in
MCAP classes, as well as learn of their good fortune.
“It
was a practical way of sensitizing them to what they have,” Bailey said. “Many
of us sometimes fail to appreciate what we have. The students need to realize there are
people who don’t have some of the things they take for granted.”
To
fulfill the project, students filled their cardboard house with money according to
instructions from a calendar chart. On each of 31 days, the calendar “charged” a
certain amount of money for a feature of the students’ homes. For instance, day four
calls for a 10 cent deposit per room, and day 19 calls for 20 cents per TV and 25 cents
per VCR.
“The
item and money counting showed the students that math is not a matter of choice. Life uses
it in many ways,” Bailey said.
Another
plus for the project, Bailey said, was that it encouraged family involvement, a staple of
MCAP.
“To
find and count some things, like electrical outlets, students had to get the help of
parents,” she said.
MCAP
parent Dianna Golphin said she was glad to help her four students participate in the
project.
“It
promotes in them an awareness of what life can be like for others,” she said. “A
lot of kids don’t realize that there are kids who go to bed at night without a
pillow. They don’t realize how lucky they are.”
Golphin,
who works with Lexington Habitat, said she and others at Habitat hope the project shows
the students the value of community service and leads them to continue to volunteer. In
fact, most of the MCAP students and parents have already volunteered to help build the
home.
Students from across Fayette County, as well as
organizations, businesses and other individuals who support the development of women and
children are participating in fund raising for “The House that Women Built.”
Construction, by women, on the house will begin during “Building on Faith Week,”
Sept 11-17.
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