AACC Softball Builds Homes and Team Chemistry

Article by Sharon Corbett

The Anne Arundel Community College softball team joined their new coach, Renee Ferguson for a day of community service and teambuilding on Sat. Feb. 16, 2013 when they volunteered for Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. The organization utilizes volunteers to help build affordable homes in the Chesapeake Bay area, which are sold at no profit through no-interest loans to the qualified homebuyers who work alongside the volunteers.

Coach Ferguson saw this as an opportunity for her new team to get to know one another off the field saying, "Habitat for Humanity’s volunteer program is a great way for teams of all kinds to come together and see what they can accomplish by working together.  The ladies and I not only gained usable skills for the future, we gained greater insight into each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and that will surely benefit us on the field this season."

Eight Pioneers were trained in framing skills then went to work helping to rough-in the basement of a home in the Orchard Ridge Community in Baltimore, Md.  They learned to operate a table saw, toe-nail studs, and how to make the walls flush and level.  Returning sophomore Shelby Smith, a Glen Burnie High graduate said, "It was a great team bonding experience and a productive way to help people.  I would gladly do it again."  Kasey McDowell, an incoming freshman from Broadneck High added, "It was a very rewarding experience.  I felt like the team was truly making a difference to a family in need."  The team was allowed to leave well-wishes in “stud graffiti” for the new homeowners to find at a later time. 

The team’s first game is their home opener on Mar. 2 when they take on the Delaware Technical and Community College- Georgetown “Roadrunners” in a doubleheader starting at noon at the field on the Arnold Campus.