Photo Credit: Jonah Neville[/caption]In 1966, Orange High School started building houses for the community. Since then, they have gone on to build 46 houses, and are currently building the fifth Hands for Habitat house. Orange has a partnership with Habitat for Humanity, while Sports Endeavors pays for sponsor costs. “They have been wonderful to work with, and this whole thing probably could not have been done without them,” construction teacher, Mat Hamlett, said.
Hamlett brings 30 years of teaching to his construction class. When asked when they were going to finish the house, Hamlett replied, “We probably would have been finished with it already, but the weather has really been an issue.” The students are usually working on the house for a hour everyday, although the time varies depending on the weather. Jaime Figueroa, a senior who has been in the class for the past three years, said, “It’s been difficult at times to work on the house sometimes because of the weather, but overall during this year it has been really fun to work on and a great experience.” All the students in construction classes talk about how enjoyable it is to work with Hamlett.
Hamlett has seen and helped build many houses throughout his teaching career at OHS. He commented on how things have changed since he first started teaching. “The biggest change, I would say, is that there is less time to build the houses every year because of graduation requirements and classes like this are being shut down everywhere.” Starting his teaching career at Stanford, then moving on to the school where he graduated from, OHS, Hamlett has experienced one fine teaching career and will always be remembered.
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