Members of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity spent Saturday working on their biggest project this semester - repairing a house and building a fence for an underprivileged family in Fluvanna County.
The service project was the fall semester activity for the fraternity's class of new members. The group's 19 pledges were responsible for planning, fund-raising and carrying out the event.
About 90 APO members attended the event, including 25 alumni.
The volunteers arrived at the location in Fluvanna County at 7:30 a.m. and worked until 5 or 6 p.m., said APO pledge class co-chairwoman Jessica Rash.
Their tasks included building a fence, painting the interior of a house, expanding the porch, repairing the bathroom, and "lots of other odd jobs," Rash said.
According to APO pledge master Kimberley Spagna, the pledges selected the project because it was a case of "real need" that probably would not have received help from other groups. The runner-up project was repairing a church, a project that the pledges decided would be more likely to garner funding and assistance from other sources.
The family living in the house consists of "an elderly woman who is slightly physically handicapped, her daughter who is mentally handicapped, and her two mentally handicapped kids," APO pledge class co-chairwoman Jessica Edwards said.
"The children were running away [and] running into the road" because their guardians were not able to supervise or chase after them, Edwards said. "The main thing that caught our attention was the need of a fence for the children. That won us over on the project."
APO members built a fence to establish a contained area in which the children could play and stay out of danger. The volunteers also repaired the porch overlooking the play area so the children's guardians could sit outside nearer to the children and supervise them properly.
"The pledge project is the biggest part of our semester," APO President Melissa Danielson said.
Since the project was entirely the work of the pledges, they were responsible for obtaining the materials necessary to renovate the house. They held several fund-raisers, including an a capella benefit concert and several bake sales, which raised more than $2,000 to purchase lumber, paint and other supplies for the house.
After buying the necessary equipment and transporting it to the site, the volunteers spent about 10 hours performing manual labor to complete the project. They completed the bulk of the work but still have some touching up to do next weekend, Rash said.
"It was definitely a lot of hard work, but it was so rewarding," she said.
"I loved it," Edwards said. "I just didn't want to stop working ... I didn't want to take a break for lunch! It's really nice to know that you're helping people, that you're changing someone's life."
Every Saturday morning, APO members perform a three-hour service project on a smaller scale than the pledge project.
APO is a co-educational service fraternity based upon the principles of leadership, friendship and service.
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