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Habitat for Humanity Northwest and JAG students smooth the way for a family home
WILLIAM NORTHCUTT
Staff Reporter
At the corner of Bell Avenue and Phillips Street in Dyersburg on Friday morning, August 30, members of Habitat for Humanity Northwest and students from the JAG program at South Pemiscot High School worked together so that a family will have a place to call home. Twenty-three students from grades 10 through 12 came from the Missouri school to do a good deed.
JAG (Jobs for America’s Graduates) is a nationwide program in which high school students, as the Pemiscot JAG Specialist, Coach James Carlisle says, “learn how to get a job and keep a job—soft skills, job interviews, how to fill out applications.”
Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity Northwest Michael Wilson stated, “This is the second year these kids have come out to help us with a house...so we called them again.”
This project, Wilson said, is Habitat for Humanity Northwest’s 33rd build, the end result going to a man and the children he is raising after his sister died. This will keep these siblings together, out of foster care, in a fresh new home.
Carlisle said that the school has 45 students in the JAG program. He and South Pemiscot High School Counselor Jeanne Dent brought the 23 students to get a hands-on work experience. This is Carlisle’s eleventh year as a JAG Specialist, and he has done the job longer than any other JAG leader in Missouri schools.
Senior Connor Tinker, President of Jag Missouri at South Pemiscot High School said that he was happy that he and the other students had the opportunity to help. “Habitat for Humanity builds houses for people who can’t really afford them,” He said, “We’re here spreading some dirt and getting the foundation ready.” Tinker plans to have a career as “a full-time minister” when he graduates, and his help for Habitat fits in with his desire to serve.
Tinker and his fellow students had out their rakes and shovels, leveling dirt, pulling up grass, putting their backs into it. Their work is literally doing the groundwork for the next round of building that the volunteers of Habitat will do.
Wilson concluded, “This is just the model Habitat—getting the community out to help those who just need a hand up.”