Memorial Day 2021 Issue

The Davis family gathers with friends after breaking
ground at their Lake Shawnee home in October.
Messages
of hope
and good
luck were
painted on
wall studs.
Frank Caccavale with two of his students,
Randy DePalma, left, and Matt Seminara, right.
Photo courtesy of Morris Habitat for Humanity
Volunteers, Families Don’t Let
Pandemic Get in the Way of
Housing Dreams
Roxbury
School s
Mon
Whi
helps buil
first se
of a mo
h
22
Story by MELISSA SUMMERS
Photos by KAREN FUCITO
The coronavirus pandemic has slowed
down many things in the last year, but
it has not stopped the hammers from swinging
as Morris Habitat for Humanity took on two
ambitious projects that will provide homes to
some very deserving families.
Chief Executive Officer Blair Schleicher
Wilson said the organization continues to face
challenges related to COVID-19 and has had
to continually adjust. “The [housing] need isn’t
going away, in fact it’s gotten worse,” she said.
“We lost our volunteer program,” Wilson
said. “Corporate groups have not been there.
We had to take a good hard look at our business
model and how we’ll continue to deliver on our
mission. And we’re doing it.”
That’s where thinking outside the ‘tool’ box
came in.
On World Habitat Day—October 5, 2020—
a truly extraordinary venture kicked off via
virtual meeting. Roxbury High School students
set out to construct a modular home on the
school campus that will be transported and
assembled at a site in Landing.
The build centers around two sections of an
innovative class at Roxbury called Structural
Design and Fabrication (SDF), led by teacher
Frank Caccavale.
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Memorial Day 2021
Caccavale, who describes himself as one
of the “Habitat faithful,” has been a frequent
volunteer with the organization and had
brought students over the last few years to one
of Morris Habitat’s previous builds at 119-121
Main Street in Succasunna.
It was during that process, in February 2020,
that Caccavale collaborated with organizers
to design a program for high school students.
“They really believed that Roxbury was the right
school to take this on,” Caccavale said. “Habitat
already had a relationship with the town and
Roxbury schools had a strong commitment to
teaching students to work with their hands and
an education in the skilled trades.”
Roxbury High School’s original auto shop,
which had been used as district storage since the
early 2000s, was converted to a 2,000-squarefoot
classroom space in 2019. SDF had been
focused on smaller district and community
projects, but Caccavale believed his students
were ready for more.
“We had a space that was well-equipped,
and it became a partnership that really made
sense,” he said. “We are the first school that I’ve
heard of that is doing anything like this in New
Jersey.”
According to Wilson, this type of joint
effort has been successful around the country.
“We would love to replicate it,” she said of
the opportunity to make it part of a high school
education. “Because the world needs people who
know about all aspects of building, from the first
shovel in the ground to every level of contractors.”
Plans for the Landing home were drawn up
over several months of discussion and donated
by Babula Architecture of Morris Plains to fit
the unusually shaped plot of land at the corner
of Edith Road and Mansel Drive, Caccavale said.
“We are building it in two halves that are going
to be transported by trailer to the site. We made
one half relatively ‘easy,’ in the sense that it doesn’t
include plumbing, and therefore involves fewer
steps.”
It’s a plan that has suited this already challenging
school year well. “Scaling it back a little made
sense, and we are still hopeful to have the first half
done by the end of the 2020-2021 school year,”
Caccavale said. The second half and final details
will be completed by students enrolled in the
program during the 2021-2022 school year.
The foundation for the home, designed primarily
as a ranch with a garage and basement under the
living space, will be constructed by Morris Habitat,
and Caccavale said the home they build must fit
the footprint exactly. Walls have already begun to
rise from the structure currently situated outside
the SDF lab.
Not only that, but each half of the home must
be able to be successfully transported from the