USU gets ‘Extreme’ly involved
Friday the still-dark cement of the sidewalk was drying in front of the Pauni’s partially-constructed home as 110 USU students worked in shifts in the back to put in the Tongan-styled landscaping.
Student volunteers hauled boxes of water bottles to workers and many assisted with the construction. Meanwhile, a group of public relations students was scattered around the construction site, fielding reporters, helping the production crew and planning fundraising events.
The landscaping project was designed by the show’s designers, but students got a hands-on experience that Aston said was better than any classroom experience. “This is a neat project [for students] to be involved in,” said Craig Aston, a senior lecturer in the Plants, Soils and Biometeorology Department at USU. “It has just about everything in it – sprinklers, irrigations, shaping berms…”
With so many people working on multiple projects, Aston said getting things done could be a challenge.
“It’s really tough. You put down a bed with nice, pretty bark, and the next thing you know, somebody’s digging it up to put down electrical wire,” he said. “All he contractors are trying to work together.”
Celeste Durall, a junior majoring in horticulture, said the project was “very unique for this neighborhood, but will make the family more at home here.” The project was large enough to normally take two or three weeks, she said, but the group of horticulture and landscaping majors worked on the front and back yards for three days, laying down sod only after all the construction was finished.
Six PR students worked on several projects to help ABC’s efforts, including organizing a benefit concert on very short notice, calling in Jackson Hole’s Isaac Hayden and a repeat show for USU, Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, as well as a group of Polynesian dancers to perform in the Spectrum Wednesday. The lack of planning time was one of the biggest challenges of the project, said Les Roka, an assistant professor in public relations who co-teaches the class the PR students were recruited from.
All in all, the professors of the students who helped said it was a great learning and resume-building experience. One of the students, Lynsie Thomson, even got a job on the set as a production assistant, running things on the set at night.
Not only were students the work force behind the landscaping and PR efforts, many of the thousands of volunteers were students.
“The student volunteer sheets filled up within half an hour,” Roka said. “There were even students here during the nighttime hours. It was an around-the-clock effort. Some were here from midnight to four a.m.”
One of the volunteers, Alicia Allen, a freshman in deaf education, said she helped workers on the roof. Her dad is a roofer, she said, and he had been working on the roof for over 12 hours.
“It’s fun to see all the landscaping and the house going up,” she said. “I think this family really deserved it. I think it’s really neat.”
Tuesday was USU Service Day, and all the volunteers on site that day were students. Other contributions by students include a clothing drive for summer apparel to send to Tonga, a project in which students colored reading books for Tongan children, and fundraisers put on by the Latter-day Saint Student Association and the Asian American Student Council.
University fundraisers collected close to $30,000 for the Pauni family, who still have a mortgage to pay off from their old house. The free benefit concert held Wednesday evening raised $11,000 through voluntary donations.