NMCC, Kiwanians
celebrate 36th Sinawik House
PRESQUE ISLE — Members of the Presque Isle Kiwanis Club joined students and employees from Northern Maine Community College April 30 at the annual Sinawik luncheon hosted by NMCC to celebrate the near completion of the 36th home built through the collaboration between the two organizations. A special guest at the luncheon was U.S. Sen. Angus King.
Photos courtesy of Northern Maine Community College
CRISTY ST. PETER, who along with husband Griffin is the homeowner for the Sinawik house being built by students at NMCC, gets the opportunity to show off her new home to U.S. Sen. Angus King following the annual Sinawik luncheon at the college.
RECEIVE SCHOLARSHIPS — Members of the Presque Isle Kiwanis Club joined students and employees from NMCC April 30 at the annual Sinawik luncheon hosted to celebrate the near completion of the 36th home built through the collaboration between the two organizations. As part of the event, scholarships were presented to five students who participated in the project. Pictured are, from left, front row: Keith Madore, president of the Presque Isle Kiwanis Club; Kathie Beaulieu, president of Sinawik; U.S. Sen. Angus King, and Matthew Jenkins of Fort Fairfield. Back row: John Akridge, Timothy Walker and Bruce Ricker, all of Presque Isle; and Mike Hooper of St. Stephens, New Brunswick.
For over three decades, the college and Sinawik (Kiwanis spelled backward), a non-profit organization founded by the Presque Isle Kiwanis Club, have partnered to build a home each year that is contracted by, and sold to, a local family. This year, Griffin and Cristy St. Peter of Caribou will make Sinawik 36 the home for their family. Once complete, the home will be moved to its permanent location on the Bowles Road in Caribou.
“The students in the trades program that work on the Sinawik house gain invaluable hands-on work experience on a project that they can take pride in and see in the community,” said Pam Buck, chair of NMCC’s trade department and project coordinator for the Sinawik house. “They get to experience what it is like working on a real construction project and the coordination required of building professionals such as carpenters, plumbers and electricians.”
The building project begins every year early in the fall semester. Preliminary floor plans are developed by the college’s computer-aided drafting students and approved by the customer.
This year’s Sinawik house is a 28-foot by 50-foot, three bedroom, two bathroom, ranch-style home that has been built to exceed current energy code requirements. Students in the CAD program worked to prepare drawings for the house that include the floor plan, exterior elevations, framing for the floor and roof, as well as plumbing, heating and electrical plans.
Once the plans are handed over, framing work on the walls, doors, windows and roof is completed by the first-year students in the residential construction program. Students in the plumbing and heating, electrical construction and maintenance, and welding and metal fabrication programs then begin the “rough-in” work.
After the plumbing and heating conduits are installed, the wiring laid and required ductwork is in, the structure is inspected. After the inspection, the senior residential construction students do the finish work, which is now in the completion stages and has consisted of installing windows, doors and cabinets and completing the interior trim.
Those attending the luncheon had the opportunity to see the students’ work firsthand during tours of the home following the lunch and a brief program.
The Sinawik luncheon also featured the presentation of scholarships from Kiwanis to five students who participated in the project. This year the students selected to receive scholarships were John Akridge and Bruce Ricker, both of Presque Isle, and Mike Hooper of St. Stephens, N.B., all from the residential construction program; Matthew Jenkins of Fort Fairfield from the electrical construction and maintenance program; and Timothy Walker of Presque Isle from the CAD program.
The partnership between NMCC and Kiwanis was formed in 1976 to provide students in several trade programs with a “real life” practical experience, and as a way for Kiwanis to raise funds to invest in the local community.
