HOPE builds homes

By Douglas Sulenta
The Collegian

The altruistic endeavors of Daniel Griffin took him to Slidell, La. over the winter holiday.

Working out of the Fresno State Office of Research and Special Programs, Griffin has worked hand in hand with the community for over a decade now.

As the treasurer of University HOPE (Housing OPportunities through Education), he hasspearheaded many projects that have improved lives in the community. This he does largely at the expense of his own spare time.

According to the Fresno State Web site,“ The primary mission of University HOPE is to capture the imagination, energy, and commitment of students, faculty, and staff in order to productively involve them in the work of providing adequate housing for families in need.”

In Louisiana he led a group of more than 40 students to assist in the reconstruction efforts in Slidell, a city affected by hurricane Katrina that lies 30 miles outside New Orleans.

“The original idea was just to help people,” said Griffin in an interview conducted during one of his brief moments of respite in Louisiana. “I know a little bit about this and that because I’ve been doing it through University HOPE for about 11 years. Just watching other people do things, you eventually catch on. You build 11 homes and the same pattern tends to reoccur.”

With the help of Griffin, the group that traveled to Slidell accomplished just what it set out to do. In the 10 days they assisted in the partial reconstruction of four houses as well as a host of other smaller projects such as painting and cleaning up.

But the most daunting part of the entire trip for Griffin wasn’t the physical labor. Managing more than 40 college students 2,000 miles from home was what really proved difficult. Griffin joked, “I wish I could have taken 200 people. But having said that, having worked with 45, I would never take more than 45 people anywhere.”

More than anything, the part of working on houses he enjoys most is being able to work with his hands.

“It’s always been my intention to work 10 hours. If I had my druthers I’d get in the van, go to a job site and not come back until 8 or 9 at night.” This he rarely got to do on the trip, as he was running from job site to job site acting as a supervisor.

During the planning for the trip he said he encountered some who tried to discourage him from coming to Slidell. Griffin would not let the naysayers divert him from his path. “How do you know if you could do it if you don’t try? I just feel in my heart that it’s the right thing to do” He said, “I just dwelled on it and prayed on it in my own way and I said, ‘Hey, we just have to help people.’ That’s my personal belief on this thing.”

What goals he set out for the trip were quite simple. He wanted to help people that needed help. He wanted to provide students with an experience that might stay with them and possibly lead them to do other charitable acts when reflecting on this trip.

“I feel good that hopefully when it’s all said and done that everybody will have some positive thing that they could say about this trip,” he said. “When something like this happens in California…maybe some of the people here will say, ‘Look, we went 2,000 miles to help somebody, maybe we could go 20.’”

Along these same lines, Griffin muses about the nature of helping others. “When somebody needs help and you say I’d love to help you…but. I never saw Christ say, ‘don’t bother me today, I’ve got to go to the store and I’ve got to go some place. Or I’ve got to get on the boat and go over to Jerusalem tomorrow, so I can’t help you.’ I never heard of him saying that.”

Now back at Fresno State, Griffin wants to inform students of what they did in Louisiana and get them involved in like activities. “I’d like to share this with other students. Maybe get other students interested in the case that something else comes up.”

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