The Cavalier track & field team found time away from running to give back to its local community by spending last Saturday with Habitat for Humanity of Asheville. The team pulled out early from McAlister Saturday morning and hit the construction site at 8:30 sharp. The team spent the early morning hours pulling nails, cleaning construction debris, and moving lumber. The home, in west Asheville, is in the late stages of construction and is already set to go toward a wonderfully deserving family. "It was tiring," said freshman distance runner Elyse Gildernew (Lookout Mt, Ga.), "but I enjoyed being a part of a project like this… knowing that a deserving family will benefit from our work. As a daughter of a contractor, I was amazed at how fast Habitat works in servicing our community."

Elyse Gildernew , Marcus Wall (Weddington, NC), and Eric Bowers (Lancaster, PA) spent most the morning cutting and fitting a wooden rail for a side door step.  Ben Hall (Columbus, NC), Talisa Bishop (Interlachen, FL), Arilicia Adkins (Seffner, FL), and Coach Larios spent many hours mixing stucco and spreading it along the exterior basement walls. 

"We had a fun time seeing Coach Larios mess up the stucco mixing procedures.  Artie and I had to coach him through it," joked Talisa Bishop, "but seriously, we did have a fun time, though it was a long and hard day of rewarding work, so we were especially thankful that Coach didn't make us practice on this day."

Photo:The 2008 track team posing in front of the West Asheville Habitat for Humanity home. 

Written By: Jose Larios
Posted By: Jose Larios
Date Posted: 2/5/2008
Number of Views: 465