Kettering College Sonography Students Lead Service Project

Kettering College Sonography Students Lead Service Project
Story and photos by Rachel Moutoux

Last winter Family Needs, Inc., a Seventh-day Adventist community center in Springfield, Ohio, experienced broken pipes that flooded the entire building, forcing the center to shut down, even though they are located in an at-risk community that depends on their services. After many repairs, the center still needed volunteers to help clean and reorganize their facility to be ready for their projected grand re-opening November 3.

Jared Houseman, a senior in the medical sonography program at Kettering College in Kettering, Ohio, became aware of the center’s need for volunteers to clean and prepare for the re-opening. Houseman’s grandmother-in-law, Ella Barnes, volunteers at the Family Needs center and was excited when Houseman asked if they needed help.

Houseman new that his classmates had been looking for an opportunity to organize a student-led local service project, and this seemed like a great fit. He told them about the Family Needs center, and when it came time for students to vote on the project they were most interested in completing, the Family Needs center was the overwhelming winner.

On October 31, the students cleaned the industrial-style kitchen from top to bottom and painted the men’s bathroom. They sorted, folded and placed clothing on shelves, and sorted and organized can goods. The students also extensively cleaned and mopped areas throughout the center, removing some of the dusty remains from the ceiling collapse.

Barnes, Houseman’s relative, shared that the students “accomplished in four hours what would have taken the center’s volunteers two months.”

Susan Price, director of Kettering College’s sonography program, remarked that this was the beginning of a great relationship between the Family Needs center and the sonography program. “I’m so proud of the sonography class’ initiative in seeing a need and then doing something about it,” she says.

Grace Carson, a senior sonography student, stated, “It was really refreshing to be able to help a small organization in our community that really needed our support.”