By:Gale Rose of The Pratt Tribune Thursday, 18 September, 2008

It will look like Extreme Home Makeover when Rotaract students from Pratt Community College gather at the new Pratt County Humane Society building north of PCC for mass workday to finish the building.

Rotaract is a collegiate version of Rotary. The PCC club has 30 students and is sponsored by the Pratt Rotary, said Misty Beck, Rotaract staff sponsor.

The Rotaract volunteers will gather at the new Humane Society building on Saturday, Sept. 20 and spend the day putting up dry wall, pouring concrete, putting in insulation and what ever else needs to be done.

"There's a lot of work to be down but there's a lot of space," Beck said.

The Humane Society wants to move into their new facility by Oct. 1 and this event will help them meet that deadline.

Rising construction costs ate up the budget for the new building leaving them with a completed shell but an unfinished interior and no concrete work on the outside of the building.

The Rotary mission is international while Rotaract focuses on more local projects like finishing the Humane Society. The response to the Humane Society workday signup was big. Some 26 students immediately signed up and more are expected including students from other organizations and PCC employees. They hope to have from 40 to 50 volunteers working on the site at the same time, Beck said.

The PCC group plans to do other work projects around Pratt. On Saturday, Oct. 18 the group will sponsor a "Big Give" project that will tackle several qualified projects around town at once.

This workday is strictly for people who have a need and can't do the work for themselves such as the elderly or handicapped, Beck said. To be considered, person needs to be referred to Rotaract by a college employee, a church or the person can contact Beck at PCC at 450-2192.

The group will do landscaping, yard work, painting, basic construction and repair. Several of the group has ag power experience, some are linemen, others have a farm background while 21 have drywall experience and nine have concrete experience.

"This is a very technical heavy group," Beck said.

The PCC Rotaract group was formed four years ago and is part of the Kansas Corp. The Pratt group had 18 volunteers and they took part in a workday in Melvern that brought 100 volunteers from different schools.

A senior citizens group and a trail-riding group had been working for five years on an abandon landfill site to turn it into a bike trail area.

In one day this group accomplished more than had been accomplished in the past five years. The trail was just a half-mile long when the day started but by the end of the day over two miles was completely done. Much of the work was done by hand.

"It showed how much can get done when kids work together," Beck said.

The group is interested in taking disaster training. Several members are certified firefighters. A group goal is to have everyone in the group certified in CPR and first aid by Christmas. The group wants to have new people trained in disaster relief every year so there would be 20 to 30 disaster trained students in the area in case of a disaster.
"That would be pretty valuable," Beck said.

The group stays in an area as inexpensively as possible. They don't do motels. At Melvern they camped for the weekend and cooked their own food that wasn't provided by hosts.

The group will take part in a citywide house-painting event on Sept. 27 and 28 in Plainville.