Hammering for a cause: Ave Maria law school students help Habitat for Humanity

The students who chose to study law at Ave Maria School of Law knew they were in for hard work. But they might not have anticipated just how hard, hot and strenuous it would get on their first week.

Last week was orientation for the incoming first-year law students, or 1-Ls. During the week, they got registered for classes, acquired needed course material and learned their way around campus. But Saturday morning was something entirely different.

A total of 52 volunteers, including faculty and staff members along with the 1-Ls, headed out to five Habitat for Humanity home jobsites, and sweated for a good cause. The early start they got meeting at the school at 7:30 was helpful, because as the sun climbed up, just being at the construction site holding nothing heavier than a camera felt exhausting, and these inexperienced carpenters were swinging hammers and schlepping 4-foot by 8-foot sheets of plywood sheeting, among other tasks.

Using the law to help others is a big part of the mission at Ave Maria School of Law, which is separate from Ave Maria University in the Collier County town of the same name, although both were founded by Domino’s Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan.

“Work like this goes hand in hand with our mission,” said Assistant Dean of Admissions Claire O’Keefe, whose tool of choice was a paintbrush. “We’re a Catholic school, and what we say is, ‘We rise by raising each other.’”

Law school President and Dean Kevin Cieply was also building up a sweat onsite, and said Habitat was an ideal choice for the school’s day of service, a tradition with incoming students.

“I like this — we’re working close together, so it’s a way to get to know each other, and it’s a great cause,” said Cieply. “Right away, this gets them connected to the community, and ignites the ethos of service which we try to cultivate in our school. We believe it’s important to do things which are greater than yourself.”

Besides, he said, it is very satisfying to have the good works you are doing be so concrete — or plywood, or siding — and be literally hands on.

“They give you work they know you can do, where you can see your accomplishments.”

Billy Witte, Habitat for Humanity site supervisor, said the organization knows it is important that their volunteer partners have a good experience.

“We’re used to novice home builders,” he said, and the Habitat supervisors provide the tools and teaching to help the volunteers get the job done. And if sometimes, a few pieces of siding get put up wrong and have to be taken back down and re-nailed, as happened at one job in Golden Gate on Saturday morning, that’s all in the day’s work and not a problem.

With so many Habitat for Humanity volunteers in town only seasonally, and not during the summer, those who come out and help at this time of year are doubly valuable, he said.

While most of the students at the five Habitat jobsites were 1-Ls, about half of the incoming class of 95 first-year students, a few were upper classmen.

Sarah Sulsona, a 3-L, is head of the student bar association, and helped to organize Saturday’s volunteer day. And though they call it a volunteer day, no one is required to work through the hottest hours of the afternoon — the crew actually “called it a day” around 11 a.m. Their good deed for the day was accomplished.

So now, the students are dealing with torts and contracts rather than plywood and trusses, and maybe, as they cram their brains with legal jargon, they might look back on the simple task of nailing up siding with nostalgia.

Ave Maria School of Law, with its north Naples campus, was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1999, and moved to Naples in 2009. The school has enrolled students from 49 states and numerous foreign countries, and has graduates practicing law in over 40 states.

For more information on Habitat for Humanity, to volunteer or contribute to Habitat, call 239-775-0036, or go online to www.HabitatCollier.org.