By Marty Proctor, South Lake Tablet
The students and faculty of South Lake High School’s construction academy recently turned over the keys to a new home in Mascotte. The build was sponsored by Habitat For Humanity Lake-Sumter, FL and many local community support partners. New homeowner, Latoya Sankey, simply shouted, “I’m excited!” When asked about the process she added, “Has this been a long road? In general yes but with Habitat it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. It’s been over a year but I also can’t believe that a year ago, I was sticking a shovel in the dirt.” She is anticipating moving in with her son Mason and daughter Skyla.
Danielle Stroud, Habitat For Humanity Lake-Sumter CEO shares, “This day is the most exciting day of the year. The day we get to celebrate the students. For all of their hard work and everything they’ve learned over the course of the year.” Looking over at Ms. Sankey she continued, “We also get to bless the family as they move on to this next phase which will be moving into the house.”
Jared Fullerton, construction teacher at South Lake High School shared his perspective. “We’re here at the third dedication ceremony we’ve had. This is a great program working with Habitat For Humanity. I’m super proud of the students and all the community support we’ve gotten.” He shifted to thoughts of the Construction Academy program at South Lake High School. “This is one of the best learning environments for students that want to be in construction. Without our partners and the students’ dedication, this doesn’t happen. We are excited to start our fourth house next year. The program has just gotten more and more popular at school. This year I had the greatest application numbers for students that want to be in this program. It’s nice to see the excitement taking place at school.”
Steven Benson, SLHS principal shared his feelings. “We’re here to celebrate the third house, today we will be turning over the keys from our students who worked incredibly hard to build this home.” Lake County School Superintendent Diane Kornegay added “Today we get to turn over the keys to the family. Who gets to call this place home.” School Board member Tyler Brandeburg chimed in, “A great day for Lake County schools. These are really, really special days. The opportunity for these students to change the lives of a family is really special.”
Kevin Thompson, Assistant Principal at LSHS who is over the Construction Technology program then shared, “We’re just really proud of these students and the program being our third habitat house that we built. We’re really excited about the progress they’ve made. For some of these students, this is the second house they have participated in building. So all the skills they have learned are going to be readily transferable to life after high school. Whether it is a personal skill or a profession, either way, it’s going to be things they will be able to take with them going forward.”
The event was very well attended including the SLHS cheerleaders, city manager Annamarie Reno, congressman Daniel Webster, and many staff members from Habitat For Humanity.
