Capital Campaign: Building Hope Construction
Amundsen Educational Center (AEC) started with 48 acres of undeveloped land. Beginning in 2001, students first learned construction by building our campus buildings, including our maintenance shop and student housing. Principal construction of the campus was complete by 2005. Starting in 2006, AEC students have been working on real world construction projects in the local community as their learning lab for Residential Construction through our Building Hope Construction program. Students have completed a single family home nearly every year since, with some other residential construction projects thrown in the mix (additions, renovations, etc.) This has presented logistical and program delivery challenges every time. Program participants must be transported to and from the work site, which has been more than 30 minutes from campus in some years. The other major variable that affects logistics is weather. Each year, we race to get dried in by the end of the fall semester hoping that we don't lose too much time each day. Additionally, because no two projects have been the same, the home design changes from year to year, along with site plans, well, septic and utilities. Furthermore, supply chain issues affect each project and the timeline for completion.
We believe we have developed a plan that will solve our logistical challenges while standardizing projects and curriculum for program participants. We are beginning a capital campaign to build a building on campus that we can build smaller buildings under. The plan is to take two 40' foot shipping containers and build a roof over them. This will provide a space out of the weather to build 1-bedroom cabins in and store building materials. Not only will we no longer have to drive to a job site, we won’t have to shovel snow when we get there. The 1-bedroom homes will be built on skids and will be able to be transported to their forever homes, either locally or even on a barge to rural villages. Continuing to build the same house repeatedly allows us to standardize, not only the curriculum, but also building materials, which would allow us to get materials for a few projects at a time which would eliminate the supply chain issues. The nature of the smaller home build will continue to provide real-world building experience that ensure that all of the curriculum requirements are satisfied on each project and within the school year. The question will no longer be whether we finish the house in the school year, but how many houses we can build in the school year. We are excited about how this will improve the transferable experience for students, especially as there will be more opportunities to work on the building maintenance side of the curriculum.
In their February meeting, the AEC Board of Directors agreed with this new strategic direction. The capital campaign began in earnest on March 1 and will end on September 1. We need $150,000.00 to build the new construction support building and the first house. We have already cleared the land and are working on site prep to move the shipping containers. Fall semester begins on Labor Day - Monday, September 4, 2023.
Will you prayerfully consider giving to this project? No gift is too small (or too large). Make your tax-deductible contribution to AEC today! Fill the thermometer! On the drop down menu, select Give to Capital Campaign - Building Hope Construction. Thank you for your support.
We believe we have developed a plan that will solve our logistical challenges while standardizing projects and curriculum for program participants. We are beginning a capital campaign to build a building on campus that we can build smaller buildings under. The plan is to take two 40' foot shipping containers and build a roof over them. This will provide a space out of the weather to build 1-bedroom cabins in and store building materials. Not only will we no longer have to drive to a job site, we won’t have to shovel snow when we get there. The 1-bedroom homes will be built on skids and will be able to be transported to their forever homes, either locally or even on a barge to rural villages. Continuing to build the same house repeatedly allows us to standardize, not only the curriculum, but also building materials, which would allow us to get materials for a few projects at a time which would eliminate the supply chain issues. The nature of the smaller home build will continue to provide real-world building experience that ensure that all of the curriculum requirements are satisfied on each project and within the school year. The question will no longer be whether we finish the house in the school year, but how many houses we can build in the school year. We are excited about how this will improve the transferable experience for students, especially as there will be more opportunities to work on the building maintenance side of the curriculum.
In their February meeting, the AEC Board of Directors agreed with this new strategic direction. The capital campaign began in earnest on March 1 and will end on September 1. We need $150,000.00 to build the new construction support building and the first house. We have already cleared the land and are working on site prep to move the shipping containers. Fall semester begins on Labor Day - Monday, September 4, 2023.
Will you prayerfully consider giving to this project? No gift is too small (or too large). Make your tax-deductible contribution to AEC today! Fill the thermometer! On the drop down menu, select Give to Capital Campaign - Building Hope Construction. Thank you for your support.
