ROCKPORT — A group of students from Camden Hills Regional High School have established a Camden Hills Habitat for Humanity Club, working in conjunction with the nonprofit Midcoast Habitat for Humanity, raising funds and volunteering their time. Saturday, April 2, they held a spaghetti dinner and silent auction at the Masonic Lodge in Rockport. 

Abigail Matlack, president of the Camden Hills Habitat for Humanity Club and a senior at Camden Hills Regional High School, said: "Over the summer I worked at the Restore [the nonprofit’s store on Route 90]," she said. “Then Tia Anderson, who's the Midcoast’s executive director, said they would like to start a club at the high school, so I took it on and we started the club."

The club has meetings every Wednesday and over the course of the year have made breadboards, selling them at Christmas by the Sea. They have volunteered a work day at one of the houses being built in Rockland.

They also get creative, such as building a claw bathtub settee.

"We'll do another work day and this was our big fundraiser here tonight," said Matlack. "Yes, we did the claw bathtub and turned it into a couch. It was Tia's idea, but we had the bathtub at the Restore and Jake Chamberlain carved it out with a plasma cutter. We sanded it and sandblasted the claw feet, then painted it and we had the canvas cushions made for it."

Matlack said she hopes the group continues at the high school.

"I'm hoping we can continue working on the houses because there's a big project going on this summer," she said. A lot of us will take positions at the Restore volunteering during the day. We have a lot of junior members, so I'm hoping it all continues after I graduate.”

Anderson lauded the students for their efforts. She has been at the helm of Midcoast Habitat for almost six years.

"The students are an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity,” said Anderson. “They have been fundraising throughout the year with different efforts and this is one of their organized events. The spaghetti dinner and silent auction goes to support our effort to construct affordable housing in Knox County."

Anderson said there is an ongoing project in Rockland and plans for another project to start as soon as it's finished.

"Right now we're working on a rehab at 36 Brewster Street in Rockland," she said. "Plans are for it to be completed by the end of April, followed by a blitz-build of two new construction houses."

A blitz-build, as explained by Anderson, is a weeklong project where local contractors and businesses are solicited to help simultaneously construct two homes.

"They'll be finished on the exterior and roughed in on the interior," Anderson said. "The teams we host over the summer will come and finish the interiors."

Traditionally, Habitat does a women's build close to Mother's Day. Anderson said that the weeklong event will happen again this year and the organization will put a press release out detailing where and when.

Anderson attributes the success and growth of Midcoast Habitat to community support.

"By far it's the strength of our community, its commitment to make it a place that's supportive of us and our neighbors,” she said. “There's never a lack of families to put in these homes. We want to provide safe, affordable, decent housing. That is the single most important thing."