Since the early 1970’s high school students in the Macon Area Vocational-Technical School building trades program have given back to the community while receiving their education.

Over the course of the school year students, under the guidance of instructor Doyle Cook, construct a house in the Macon area. Mr. Cook took part in the program and helped build two homes while he was in high school. Now he instructs his own students in the classroom, drives the school bus, and teaches with hands on training at the site for several hours a day during the school week as his students accomplish goals, and solve problems. Cook enjoys watching his students grow during the year and says, “the big reward is when they come back after they graduate and tell me they have a job in construction somewhere. That’s the best part of it.”

As the students finish the program and move forward with their lives, they will be able to say with pride years from now when driving past a familiar house, that they had a hand in building that home.

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Students work as a team while tackling the construction this year’s house. Two groups of students work at the site during the school day. The first group buses from Macon High School a short distance to the construction site in the morning, and a second works for several hours in the afternoon.