Virginia Tech students live out Ut Prosim to help a Radford family
Students with Appalachia Service Project build addition for Radford Family
(From left) Mark Edwards, Jiho Lyu, Chris Donaldson, Cooper Martin, Alex Alday, Ryan Baum, Isaac Zheng, Rebecca Greiner, Zach Meiners, Jacob Kmieciak, and Chris Parks work on the home, saving the family money as they expand. Photo courtesy of Sarah Bates.
Thanks to a group of Virginia Tech students, an expanded family now has room for everyone to have their own space. With more than 450 hours of work from several students and student groups, the Radford, Virginia homeowners, who took in their four grandchildren, have now doubled the footprint of their home.
The project started in August 2022, when the Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley connected the family in need of construction assistance with Appalachia Service Project at Virginia Tech (ASP-VT), a student service group designed to provide construction services to families in need in Central Appalachia. The homeowners had a one-bed, one-bath house and part of the funds to expand to a two-bed, two-bath home but needed assistance to provide for their growing family.
ASP-VT took the lead on the project and partnered with Building Goodness Foundation, another Virginia Tech student group, and Landmark Builders, a general contractor from Winston-Salem, NC. While the homeowners footed the bill for the materials, the students and company provided guidance and manual labor to make the expansion happen.
Starting in the fall of 2022, students worked hand-in-hand with the experts to put their building and engineering degrees into action. They built the project from the ground up – starting with scoping the possibilities, ordering materials, producing schedules, tracking costs, and coordinating volunteers. Throughout, they worked to get the job done. Landmark Builders helped the group get the building permit, worked on the project while students were on break and unable to assist and provided technical support.
As the student groups, local volunteers, and construction crews continued to work on the home and fundraise, it was time to put on a roof. Once again, the community's generosity came through as Blue Ridge Roofing & Home Improvement gave a discount to put a roof over the children’s heads.
With the house fully enclosed, the children moved into their new rooms — leaving the two porch decks to be finished. That work wrapped up at the end of October 2024.
Homeowner Gary Farmer says the house is “starting to feel like a home.” To make the edition even better, Virginia Tech students also built the children matching beds and dressers. As the family stretches out in the new space, they are grateful for the group effort of the community.