Page 49 - April 2008

and even encouraging their significant others who felt more comfortable in a lab than at a construction site. (See the sidebar by Shari Berkowitz.)
Work started promptly at 8 a.m. and the group split into two teams tackling two of four houses under construction. The homes had foundations (raised almost four feet in case of future flooding), floors and the exterior shell. There was plenty of work to be done. Each house had a job leader—a young Habitat employee with carpentry/construction experi- ence. These leaders channeled the volunteers' zeal by creat- ing bite-sized tasks such as doorway construction, cutting holes for windows in the exterior sheathing and, to the even- tual pride of a few volunteers, building wide, stable staircases in place of the existing ladders.
The progress was remarkable. In just one day (though the day represented 300 person hours), both of the homes had all of their interior framing completed. Volunteers were dirty, sore and generally exhausted by the 3:30 p.m. clean-up but, walking through the house at the end of the long day and after posing for pictures and exchanging hugs with the future homeowners, the house began a transfor- mation from construction project to home. House number 2 was to be the home of a single mother and her seven-year old son. Walking from room to room, it was easy to imag- ine the little boy growing up in his new home, eating break- fast in his new kitchen and playing games in his new bed- room.
Without a doubt, the day was deemed a success by both the Society and the volunteers and the Habitat volunteer day
will be a fixture at every Fall meeting. Miami, FL the site of the Fall 2009 ASA meeting, certainly has communities in need. So mark your calendars and get ready to swing a ham- mer or build a staircase.
Author’s note: As I remember our day, I recall being sur- prised to see words of encouragement and blessings were scrawled all over the unfinished walls that would be con- cealed when the home was finished. One particularly stands out in my memory: “Find Peace Here.” We, as volunteers for the day, surely did just that.
The list of volunteers and their affiliations are below.
Thanks to each of you and
Brandon Tinianov
Name
Clemeth Abercrombie Dave Adams
Heather Ames
Ted Argo
Shari Berkowitz
Mike Canney
Bill Cole
David Gagnon
Linda Gedemer
Matt Golden
Sarah Gourlie
Nicolas Grimault Pamela Harght
Todd Hay
your generous sponsors.
Affiliation
Daly-Standlee and Associates DL Adams Associates
Boston University
University of Texas
CUNY Graduate Center University of Washington Etymonic Design Inc. University of Texas
The Audio Group
Kinetics Noise Control, Inc. University of Texas Université de Lyon University of Kansas University of Texas
As a doctoral student, I expect to return from the Acoustical Society meetings with my head swirling with new areas of investigation, new collegial connections and plenty to keep me thinking for the next six months. At this meeting, I got all that and more. By spending Saturday at Habitat for Humanity's Jefferson Build with 34 other ASA members, I learned many new things, some of which I will share here with you:
• How to carry 16 foot lengths of lumber: Balance them on your shoulder, and don’t try to turn around, even if someone calls your name.
• How to operate a chop saw: Measure twice, cut once, wear ear protection and eye protection, take your time. Wow, that thing can cut. Hi, Kendric!
• How to practice job safety: Watch your fingers now, or look for them later. Hi, Brad!
• How to use a staple hammer to put Tyvek around a house. Like wrapping a giant present, which it kind of is.
• House building has its own jargon, such as 10” studs above a doorway being called cripples. Sawzall is a brand name, but is used interchangeably with recip- rocating saw. Hey, I’m a speech language patholo- gist from the speech communication TC, we live for this kind of stuff.
• How to improve the sound dampening in my own
home. A lunch time committee of acoustical con- sultants took this under consideration (hi, guys!) and the upshot is I should sell my house sooner rather than later.
• What a hurricane strap is and how to install it. In the- ory, anyway; in actuality, I just delivered the straps and the nails as needed. Next time I'll hammer my own.
• How to hammer framing nails (remedial class). My participation in this part of the project significantly slowed things down, so I returned to my chop saw. I loved my chop saw very much by then anyway and hated to leave it.
This only touches on the level of cooperation, cama- raderie and cross-pollination that went on at the build site. Everyone really dug in and worked hard all day, and the houses were so much farther along at 3 p.m. than they were at 8 a.m., it was quite remarkable. I thank Brandon for his leadership, and I thank the ASA for the delicious lunch and the bus transportation. I thank Habitat NOLA for provid- ing a safe, fun work environment. But most of all, I thank the other ASA members for their friendship and support in a most worthwhile effort. Who knew a speech perception type could have such a great day with a bunch of Matlab geeks, dolphin listeners and egg crate slingers? I look for- ward to doing it again in Miami!
Shari Berkowitz
What I learned in New Orleans
National News 47