CATHOLIC SCHOOLS	THE CATHOLIC NORTHWEST PROGRESS
	JANUARY 22, 2009

O’Dea students tackle home-repair project

O’Dea senior is driving force behind schools community service project to assist low-income homeowners with repairs

SEATTLE
BY TERRY MCGUIRE

Last month's inaugural meeting at O'Dea High School was especially impressive to two people involved.

Senior David Swanson, who had called the meeting to gauge interest in a community service project he was part of, was happy to see more than 80 fellow students show up.

And O'Dea Spanish teacher Larkin Temme, who will oversee the project as the school's Associated Student Body moderator, was equally pleased with the large initial turnout at a school with an enrollment of but 480.

"I'm just really impressed with David and with the level of student interest," Temme said last week. "It's a really positive thing to see that students are interested in going out of their way and doing community service."

The project will see the O'Dea volunteers make home repairs for low-income homeowners through the nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together Seattle. Sometime this spring -- either on their own or with students from other Seattle high schools -- Swanson and his classmates will spend a Saturday renewing the home of someone who is physically unable to make the repairs.

"Helping homeowners live independently in warmth and safety is what our mission is," said Margie Thirlby, the organization's executive director. "So I think that doing service to help that mission is really meaningful for the students."

A need for leadership
The 18-year-old Swanson, O'Dea's ASB vice president, has been the driving force in getting classmates involved in the project, Temme said. When the school's student leaders met last July to formulate goals, "one of the first things out of David's mouth" was the need for the leadership to get students involved in community service, she said.

In this school year O'Dea introduced a Christian service learning program requiring students to perform a certain number of community service hours as part of their religion classes. Swanson hopes to capitalize on that, noting that students will be able to accumulate eight-to-ten hours of community service in just one Saturday.

Though it’s too soon to tell how many students will follow through, Temme is impressed with Swanson’s initiative.

"I've seen students who are a lot of talk," she said. “They say they want to go out and plan this whole thing, and I say, 'You plan it, and I will back you up, but I need to see the planning come from you.' With David, he went out and planned the whole thing."

Swanson said he looked for a community service project that could involve a lot of students. He remembered Rebuilding Together Seattle -- formerly known as Christmas in April and part of a nationwide effort of more than 200 affiliates -- from when his older brother, Andy, was a participant.

In his own life, Swanson has been a monthly volunteer the past seven years at the Archdiocesan Housing Authority's St. Martin de Porres Shelter for older men in Seattle. Last year he volunteered with an art program for at-risk teens and also started his ongoing volunteer work with the hunger relief agency Northwest Harvest.

He said his involvement in two national leadership organizations for high school students -- the Junior State of America and the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership -- inspired him toward community service work.

Politics can lead to social change
"I started realizing that politics can be a very good avenue to make social change and make differences in the nation and the world," he said. "I started seeing the importance of service and helping those that don't really have someone to speak out for them."

Helping others "can be a really humbling experience," he said. "It really makes you see that you have so much and you can offer them so much.

"What's important is not just giving them money," he added, "(but) interacting with them and listening to their stories and just making an impact in their lives."

Swanson plans to go on to Seattle University and then to a career in public affairs with a focus on nonprofit work.

But for now he's kept busy with the Rebuilding Together Seattle project. He's sending out letters soliciting sponsors, hoping in particular to enlist a construction company or engineering firm willing to provide the skilled manpower and materials needed.

Participating students are being asked to individually raise $25 for the project, money that will go toward materials and supplies. Swanson hopes to raise approximately $7,000 in all, including $2,000 from the students.

To make it more of a social event, he's also trying to interest students from the all-girls' Holy Names Academy in Seattle to join in the project. "There's going to be guys there," he'll tell them.

Thirlby, herself a graduate of Holy Names Academy, invites the general community to become involved in Rebuilding Together Seattle.

"What we definitely need the most are people who are willing to lend their professional talents," she said, such as "someone who owns a construction company and would be willing to lend skilled workers to help at some of the homes...or a lumber company willing to donate materials."