ABOVE: The truck hauling a home from Fairmont High School to 403 East 5th Street pulls out of the school to make the careful trip through town on Wednesday. The home was refurbished by FHS students in the building trades class over the past two years for Habitat for Humanity.

FAIRMONT – With two years of work through Fairmont High School’s Building Trades course, a refurbished house for Habitat For Humanity has been completed and was delivered to 403 East 5th Street on Wednesday.

High School Principal Chad Brusky said the program began around two years ago, when they were close to opening the new Career and Technical Education add-on to the high school.

“How can we provide something beneficial to the community while accessing that space?” he said. “Habitat was a natural partner. As we were talking about what that might look like, the idea from our group came from [the fact that] they get more houses donated in a year than they can take. They move them by trailer all over the county. One of the ideas was let’s put it in our new manufacturing lab.”

With Building Trades being a block class, Brusky said it afforded them perks that benefited the refurbishment process.

“It’s back-to-back classes that they’re working on it,” he said. “In the past, they’ve gone off campus to work on different projects. By having the manufacturing lab here, it saves us a lot of transit time, and students get a lot more time on project.”

For the project itself, Brusky said it involved taking the house down to the studs and rebuilding it.

“There was a lot of demo, pulling out insulation, removing drywall to expose old electrical and then plumbing,” he said. “Our kids got to help run wires and watch what an electrician does, so some of our students who don’t get that exposure as part of school get that by watching someone do that work and get an idea if that’s something they want to do in the future.”

With these types of projects, Brusky said it is not uncommon for them to stretch across multiple years.

“Some of the ways we’re trying to fund our next project, the grants are structured to be over three years,” he said. “Even the state recognizes a multiple-year project is not uncommon. We have some cars in our shop that have been in there for multiple years. They’re barn finds that they’re pulling out and basically taking it down to the frame and rebuilding it for our automotive.”

In running programs like this, Brusky said there’s a lot of planning and contingency planning that goes into ensuring they get to the finish line.

“These projects run because of student interest,” he said. “Registration and making sure kids know what the opportunities are, so we have students available to work on these projects, making sure we have instructors to do that. The other piece is looking for grants and funding opportunities to do that.”

By being able to provide a project like this as a learning opportunity for students and a tangible, beneficial asset for the Fairmont community, Superintendent Andy Traetow said it is truly remarkable.

“The importance of finding ways to give back and for our students to use their skills, strengths and aptitudes to enhance a segment of our community. We’re extremely grateful for the partnership that we have with Habitat for Humanity, as well as all the other businesses that we partner with in our career technical education field.”

Looking forward, Traetow said they have a grant to work on another housing project that’s good through the 2027-28 school year. Brusky said with the next house they build, it will be a different process.

“Looking at more of building from a stick build,” he said. “Starting from scratch, building it on a trailer, and then bringing it to a site with a foundation in the future. Doing the rehab first gets difficult with timelines. A stick build, we’ll be able to stick to a regimented schedule and have more predictability on how we’re going to get that on-site for a future project.”

Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Staci Thompson confirmed this, saying the grant was for $100,000 and the home is planned to be done by the Spring of 2027. She said the recently finished home does already have a family moving in.

Thompson said the city was also helpful in getting this project done, with $30,000 in State Affordable Housing Aid funds and $10,000 from the HRA.

“Housing is always good,” she said. “There’s no downside to affordable housing in Fairmont and Martin County. Martin County needs it so badly. People are paying exorbitant amounts for rent. Every family we could move from a renting situation to a homeowner situation is a plus for everybody.”