Photograph by Bob Christy, ‘95

An interior design student creates a model playhouse for the Kent State United for the Gulf Coast effort. Several playhouses will be built and auctioned off to raise money for the alternative spring break trip.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
Find out how Kent State interior design students are lending their expertise to improve communities and services through projects like the International Institute of Akron.

BACK FROM BILOXI
Read about the experience of one Kent State United for the Gulf Coast volunteer who returned to the still-devastated area after working as part of the relief effort last year.
 

Project Playhouse

Interior design students lend their expertise to Katrina relief efforts

Kent State interior design students have volunteered their creative talents to benefit Kent State United for the Gulf Coast. They have created playhouses to be sold to raise funds for the 2007 trips to Biloxi, Miss.

Last summer, Kent State United for the Gulf Coast committee members Chere Doiron, assistant interior design professor, and Ann Gosky, associate director for the Center for Student Involvement, proposed the idea of “Project Playhouse” as a way to defray the cost for volunteers traveling to Biloxi for the winter and spring break trips this year.

Project Playhouse began as a class project in the fall of 2006. Twenty-nine juniors in one of Doiron’s classes created playhouse designs, and the committee selected 10 for construction. In March, the completed playhouses will be auctioned off in Northeast Ohio.

The winning designs were created by students Elise Cardinal, Ashley Cramer, Megan Fleming, Julie Hines, Janine Leisure, Julie McGrogan, Kate Mileti, Laura Murray, Laura Weimer and Charlene Zurfle.

“It’s not only a new way to raise money for the trip, but also a way to get the greater university and community involved,” Gosky says.

The playhouses are approximately 10 feet square and cost about $1,000 to construct. To keep the initial construction cost low, the committee has acquired sponsorship from local businesses to help with materials, Gosky says.

To create awareness of the project among the university community, six of the 10 playhouses are under construction on the Kent Campus, in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, the Kent Student Center and in the lobby of the Tri-Towers Residence Complex. During the trips to the Gulf Coast, volunteers will construct four of the playhouses in public places in Biloxi and Pass Christian, Miss.

Gosky says a number of organizations have been assisting with Project Playhouse.

“Habitat for Humanity of Portage County donated space to cut materials and is lending their expertise to assist students as they ready the materials for the playhouses,” she says.

Kent State student groups such as Students of Scholarship, Mortar Board, Kent Interhall Council, and the Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Association have teamed up to erect a few of the playhouses on campus.

Gosky said Jonathan Fleming, assistant professor of architecture and environmental design, also volunteered students from his senior Materials and Methods class to provide assistance to the building crews.

In 2006, more than 400 volunteers, including Kent State students, faculty and staff, traveled to areas of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina to help in the rebuilding effort. During spring break, the volunteers worked on projects ranging from roofing and installing drywall to helping in the day care facilities.

This year the committee decided to take trips during the winter and spring breaks. Gosky says the committee added the trip in January because the Gulf Coast community still has an immense need for volunteers in the relief effort. She says the second trip also provides students with another opportunity to help.

“I think there is a real commitment with the people who have gone,” Gosky says. “Once you go, you want to go back because you see the need is so great.”

Gosky says approximately 100 people volunteered in January, and the committee hopes to see an increase in volunteers from last year for the trip in March.

“Last year we hoped to see government officials helping, but all the help they have is from college students and church groups,” Gosky explains. “It’s everyday people down there volunteering, and if we don’t do it, no one else is going to.”

For more information on Project Playhouse contact Chere Doiron at cdoiron@kent.edu or Ann Gosky at agosky@kent.edu. For additional information about the relief trips, visit the Kent State United for the Gulf Coast Web site.