Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
On Saturday, a tangible energy rolled like a wave down San Miguel Avenue, a west Phoenix neighborhood just a few blocks away from Grand Canyon University.
Excited chatter and then a “Woo-hoo! Lopes up!” breaks up the crisp morning air from one of the players with the women’s beach volleyball team who walked en masse from campus to the home of Gina Millsaps, hyping up the day and what they were about to do: paint her home alongside GCU community partner Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona.
It was just one of 10 landscaping and painting projects about 200 students completed as part of the home renovation blitz called Lopes Go Local.
Sophia Hladyniuk, a senior criminal justice major, was one of more than a dozen women’s beach volleyball members who gathered on campus around 7:30 a.m. for the Lopes Go Local check-in. By 8:30 a.m., she and her teammates were at Millsaps home, happy and raring to do some good in the community.
“We have Habitat for Humanity back home, and doing this just makes me interested in doing local outreach in my own community,” said Hladyniuk, who's from London Ontario, Canada. “Coming from a family who moved around to a lot of different places just because of cost of living and stuff like that, it’s near and dear to my heart to help other people in the community and just be there when they need it, especially in a pretty stressful time.”
Team member Hailey “Hutch” Hutchings, a senior from Flower Mound, Texas, has volunteered at Lopes Go Local for three years.
“I love giving back to the community,” she said, but also, “Oh my gosh! I love getting to paint houses. It is genuinely one of my favorite things. I find it so soothing … this is like self-care for myself.”
Getting up early on a Saturday to help your neighbor paint their home?
“It’s worth getting up early for,” she said.
Added Hladyniuk, what made the day even more worth getting up early for was the chance to meet Millsaps. “It’s really cool meeting Gina, who’s a local community member and also loves GCU. It’s really nice to get to know people’s personal stories.”
Millsaps, principal at Constitution Elementary School, has lived in the neighborhood for five years, though she’s been spending time here her whole life. Her aunt has lived in the neighborhood for more than 60 years.
Millsaps has seen the transformation firsthand, remembering a run-down apartment complex that’s no longer there.
“I know that was hard for some people to move, but I know that was impacting the neighborhood, and so we see the change to something positive and amazing.”
She sees that positivity radiate from GCU, which she became familiar with at her previous school that partnered with GCU. She also has friends who work at the university.
At her own school, too, GCU students have come to do their student teaching.
“I know that President (Brian) Mueller is deeply invested in this neighborhood because I’m an educator. I know he spends and invests a lot of effort in the schools and helping them achieve their academic goals,” Millsaps said.
Mueller was one of the volunteers on her home.
“There’s just a lot of great families out here,” he said of GCU’s neighbors. “They’re very hardworking people, very family-oriented. They love the home they live in and the neighborhood they live in. Anything we can do to help make it better, to improve it, that’s why we’re out here.”
“Thank you, thank you, for spending your Saturday to come out and help us paint our house,” Millsaps told the students gathered just before the traditional prayer that opens Habitat projects – students who Habitat leader David Scott Elston said it’s a blessing to work with. “I’ve never had a bad batch of students,” he said. “They come in here, they’ve got a lot of energy. … It’s a pleasure working with them.”
Women’s beach volleyball coach Abra Rummel, whose team is gearing up for the opening game of the season on Feb. 22, learned about the GCU-Habitat partnership a few years ago.
“I thought it was the perfect lineup of university values and what we want our team to value – just community and helping those around you,” said Rummel as she brushed a layer of white paint on a backyard wall of Millsap’s home while Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” played in the background. “I’ve been signing us up ever since and have gotten great feedback from the players about how much they enjoy it.”
It’s been a decade since GCU first partnered with Habitat as part of the homebuilding nonprofit’s Neighborhood Revitalization initiative. The two Christian organizations delved into their first home project together in 2015.
For GCU, that partnership is an integral part of its community five-point plan, which the university will celebrate at its 75th anniversary Amethyst Gala Feb. 21.
Jason Barlow, Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona CEO, shared with students what’s been accomplished in that decadelong partnership:
- About 600 unique families served
- Almost 38,000 volunteer hours
- 7,700 volunteers from GCU who have helped completed 1,446 repairs
According to university data, median home values have risen 876% in the 85017 ZIP code since 2011.
While families fund about a third of the cost of the repairs to their home, Barlow added, GCU provides support through employee giving program Allocate to Elevate that covers the rest of the cost.
“I appreciate that you get up on a Saturday morning and have for a decade now to come out and help the neighbors with some of the projects,” he said, and advised, “Talk to these families. Get to know them. Many of these students that work on someone’s home, they develop a long-term relationship with these families and keep in touch with them.”
Maribell Maldonado, who works with the Local Outreach’s high school soccer ministry, said getting to know the homeowners brings her joy, “especially when I get to talk with Spanish-speaking families. … You can just really see how thankful they are for the work we do for them. It’s really heartwarming.”
Ronak Gujrathi, a senior biology major, signed up the GCU Pre-Dental Society for Lopes Go Local. They placed landscape rock at a home on Montebello Avenue – 31 tons of it.
“Fulfillment,” he said, is why he loves doing these projects and has completed about 10 of them since he’s been a student. “It’s rewarding to see the house transform … and just being able to help others that need it, just being of service.”
For Local Outreach’s Morgan Chobanian, who works with adults who have aged out of the foster care system, said, “I’ve learned it is way more fun to serve when you are with people who love the Lord and are excited to serve, whatever the project is. It’s really cool to do tangible work near GCU, since we live here.”
Erik Nelsen, director of Spiritual Life, said, “One amazing way to show love to others is through service” and read from John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you … that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Levi Moss, a Christian studies senior and volunteer with GCU Local Outreach’s Ohanafied ministry, understood that passage.
“It feels nice to tangibly bring good, you know,” Moss said from a painting project at Montebello Avenue. "It’s not complicated. It’s like, how do I love someone? By scooping rocks. And then I get to drive by and see the work we’ve done.”
GCU Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected] or at 602-639-7901.
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