October 26, 2022 • 9 mins
Norseman staff writer Maci Brown sat down with superintendent Mrs. Ginger Carrabine to talk about the Bryan ISD Build Program. Look for a more in-depth newspaper article in the first edition of the BHS Norseman newspaper coming out soon.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey Vikings, I'm Maci Brown with the Bryan High Norseman newspaper and I'm here with
Mrs. Ginger Carrabine the Superintendent for Bryan ISD, and Dr. Brian Merrell,
Executive Director of School Leadership for Bryan ISD. Thank you for being with us today to
talk about the Bryan ISD build program. To start off, what exactly is the Bryan ISD build program?
(00:22):
Well, I want to start by thanking you for inviting me to participate in your podcast
today and I'm happy to share information about the Bryan ISD build. What we're trying to accomplish
is building a house for a deserving family who lives in Bryan, Texas. So we are trying to rally
the troops right now, namely, the students to help us with fundraising and awareness and
(00:43):
promotion promoting the event and just telling the story about why this is needed in our community.
How did the build project develop as an idea?I'm already involved with Habitat for Humanity
and so is one of our Bryan ISD School Board of trustees, Mr. David Stassney, who has been
involved for many many years so I realized one day when I was in a meeting, as we were building
(01:05):
houses for many other deserving families in our community, and I thought you know what this would
be a really cool project for our students to do. Our Bryan ISD family could actually build
a house and experience every facet of it from fundraising to literally swinging the hammer
and then eventually turning the keys over to a deserving family. So that's how the idea was born.
Absolutely and then how will the family be chosen?Well, we're partnering with the Habitat for
(01:28):
Humanity organization and they do this already so they have a system in place in which families
from our community actually apply to own one of these houses. There's an entire list of criteria
that they have to satisfy so we're working with the Habitat for Humanity organization
and they will ultimately pick the family for us so we're excited to see how that will turn out.
(01:55):
Well, the timeline has begun. We kicked it off at convocation when all of our staff members returned
in August and then for the month of September, we've really concentrated on telling the story,
promoting the event, and started working on fundraising and donations. We're hoping to do
all of our fundraisings in September, October, November, and December, and then in January,
(02:15):
if we have enough money and everything's ready to go, we'll start construction. Again,
we'll partner with Habitat for Humanity, but we look to tap many of our students
to go out to the work site and swing a hammer and build the house with us, and then if all
goes well with the construction project, the keys will be handed over to the family in May.
How exactly can or how are students helping with this?
(02:39):
We have so many students right now that are already involved. Our student ambassadors in
particular have taken a lead role in this and other organizations are out doing car
washes. They're promoting it, they're asking for donations, they're showing up at our Friday Night
Football games, they're passing out flyers, they're meeting with our parent groups. I've
taken a few students to Rotary and other community meetings so that they can just help tell the
(03:01):
story. As far as other students helping, we invite everyone to get involved and talk to
their teachers, their campus principals, and their sponsors for their extracurricular events,
and to come up with ways to again just promote it and get the story out and then ask for ways
to raise money. The campuses have really gotten behind the project and they've gone
out and started fundraising so a lot of our elementaries have already done penny drops
(03:24):
and wear pajama days. Those types of things, hat days, and so they've really done a great job of
not only bringing the awareness to the campus and to the students but also to the families
that's where the student ambassadors really felt like that's their part to play right now. They're
excited to be able to actually construct and help build the house, but right now they want to make
sure that the words are out so anyone who wants to participate can, and then the elementary students,
(03:46):
where it may feel like they don't have a place to actually do, getting the news to their parents
and also bringing in that change or the dollars or the monetary donations they can provide is really
tremendous. It gives us a lot of momentum. One more way that students can be involved as well as
the staff is that we are planning hats off to the Bryan ISD build in partnership with Habitat for
(04:08):
Humanity. The Friday before Halloween, in October, we're going to ask all the staff members and our
students to consider donating one dollar to wear a hat and all the money raised will go towards the
project. So that's really a cool project because we have almost 16,000 students and almost 3,000
employees. If everyone paid that one dollar and wore the hat and we collected all that money
(04:30):
that would be nineteen thousand dollars raised in just one day by everyone simply giving one dollar,
so we are really excited about that. There's gonna be a lot of information that's going to come out
about it and we're going to need students to help promote that and to participate.
That's amazing, what do you hope that the students will gain from partnering with this project?
We hope that every single student from pre-k through grade 12 will learn this
(04:55):
most important lesson of serving their community and giving back. We talk about
the essential eight in character development and this is an opportunity to walk and to
put all that we've been learning about for character development into play,
into motion, and then we hope that when our students graduate from Bryan ISD they will
remember this. They'll remember when they were in eighth grade that they built a house or they
(05:16):
were in kindergarten and they helped build a house and that they will be intrinsically
motivated as a citizen who lives among us to continue to serve their community in some way.
My first real interaction with Habitat for Humanity was when I was in college. I was
from Texas City and came to Texas A&M University and then volunteered for Habitat for Humanity
in Bryan. I can still drive by the house that I built so there's a legacy there that I feel and
(05:40):
even establishing like the Merrell roots and so the opportunity to give each of our students this
opportunity to be a part of it helps create the legacy for them. They can remember when
they built that house or they painted those ceilings or those walls. I can remember when
I painted the ceiling and the paint all over me and just what fun I had being out there with my
friends and learning how to do roofs and things that I didn't really understand at the time,
(06:01):
but habitat really worked with us to fully understand it and allowed us to participate,
that legacy I think is really important; living out that essential eight is critical.
I hope that our community will partner with us you know. If they want to support us financially
that would be fantastic, but if they just want to participate in some of our events and help tell
(06:25):
our story, and to have a better awareness of the need to provide affordable housing for a deserving
family in our community I hope that we can all rally together and stand united to ultimately give
back to our citizens in Bryan ISD in this way.Absolutely, and is there anything else we
would like to add about this project or any upcoming events that you all have planned?
(06:48):
I would just like to remind everyone that we have a lot of information on our Bryan ISD website so
you can go to bryanisd.org\build and learn more about this. We even have a QR code if anyone wants
to make a donation it goes straight to PayPal and it'll go towards the build so any donation,
any amount, or any amount of awareness or any promotion would be most helpful. We're going to
(07:13):
be at all the games, football games, so you can find us immediately when you walk into Merrell
Green Stadium to your right. And I'd like to give a shout-out to Mary Russ and Shelby Goodman just
for their support. There are so many people that have just said ‘look, We believe in this
and we're going to support it but in particular they built this house so when you walk in you're
going to see this really. It's fairly large, it's a facade of a house that we're asking people to
(07:34):
take pictures in front of and around and we had it at the Bryan High game last Friday night. It was
fun to watch the community just come out and use that. It's going to be moved around. We're going
to be at First Friday so you'll see us at the Voices for Children. We've partnered with them
and they're allowing us to be outside of their storefront and so we're handing out information
there. What Mrs. Carrabine talked about so you're going to see us at community events.
(07:56):
The ambassadors and just students, they're just amazing. They believe in Habitat for Humanity,
they believe in Bryan ISD and they just see this as a natural partnership and so we're going to be
at the Wixon Valley and National Night Out, you're going to see, really habitat being
broadcast because it's a worthwhile organization.Yes, and I want to give a shout-out to the Bryan
ISD build a core team. There have been some teachers and administrators involved
(08:19):
in this for months. We actually started talking about this last year, gauging the
interest and there was a lot of interest and then we started planning the plan. So,
we've been working on this for months and months and months and then we launched it officially in
August so we're super excited about everyone that's already involved and all the people who
will become involved also another shout-out to Dr. Bryan Merrell who's joining us today
(08:40):
because he's rallying the troops. We actually got to work the concession
stand at the football game on Friday night so lots of students showed up. I understand
that we raised almost a thousand dollars that night. It was a great night, super exciting,
That is amazing. Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to talk with us today. We
look forward to hearing more about the build in the coming months as well as we will continue to
(09:04):
provide coverage and updates. Thank you so much.Thank you.
Hey Vikings, I'm Maci Brown with the Bryan High Norseman newspaper and I'm here with
Mrs. Ginger Carrabine the Superintendent for Bryan ISD, and Dr. Brian Merrell,
Executive Director of School Leadership for Bryan ISD. Thank you for being with us today to
talk about the Bryan ISD build program. To start off, what exactly is the Bryan ISD build program?
(00:22):
Well, I want to start by thanking you for inviting me to participate in your podcast
today and I'm happy to share information about the Bryan ISD build. What we're trying to accomplish
is building a house for a deserving family who lives in Bryan, Texas. So we are trying to rally
the troops right now, namely, the students to help us with fundraising and awareness and
(00:43):
promotion promoting the event and just telling the story about why this is needed in our community.
How did the build project develop as an idea?I'm already involved with Habitat for Humanity
and so is one of our Bryan ISD School Board of trustees, Mr. David Stassney, who has been
involved for many many years so I realized one day when I was in a meeting, as we were building
(01:05):
houses for many other deserving families in our community, and I thought you know what this would
be a really cool project for our students to do. Our Bryan ISD family could actually build
a house and experience every facet of it from fundraising to literally swinging the hammer
and then eventually turning the keys over to a deserving family. So that's how the idea was born.
Absolutely and then how will the family be chosen?Well, we're partnering with the Habitat for
(01:28):
Humanity organization and they do this already so they have a system in place in which families
from our community actually apply to own one of these houses. There's an entire list of criteria
that they have to satisfy so we're working with the Habitat for Humanity organization
and they will ultimately pick the family for us so we're excited to see how that will turn out.
(01:55):
Well, the timeline has begun. We kicked it off at convocation when all of our staff members returned
in August and then for the month of September, we've really concentrated on telling the story,
promoting the event, and started working on fundraising and donations. We're hoping to do
all of our fundraisings in September, October, November, and December, and then in January,
(02:15):
if we have enough money and everything's ready to go, we'll start construction. Again,
we'll partner with Habitat for Humanity, but we look to tap many of our students
to go out to the work site and swing a hammer and build the house with us, and then if all
goes well with the construction project, the keys will be handed over to the family in May.
How exactly can or how are students helping with this?
(02:39):
We have so many students right now that are already involved. Our student ambassadors in
particular have taken a lead role in this and other organizations are out doing car
washes. They're promoting it, they're asking for donations, they're showing up at our Friday Night
Football games, they're passing out flyers, they're meeting with our parent groups. I've
taken a few students to Rotary and other community meetings so that they can just help tell the
(03:01):
story. As far as other students helping, we invite everyone to get involved and talk to
their teachers, their campus principals, and their sponsors for their extracurricular events,
and to come up with ways to again just promote it and get the story out and then ask for ways
to raise money. The campuses have really gotten behind the project and they've gone
out and started fundraising so a lot of our elementaries have already done penny drops
(03:24):
and wear pajama days. Those types of things, hat days, and so they've really done a great job of
not only bringing the awareness to the campus and to the students but also to the families
that's where the student ambassadors really felt like that's their part to play right now. They're
excited to be able to actually construct and help build the house, but right now they want to make
sure that the words are out so anyone who wants to participate can, and then the elementary students,
(03:46):
where it may feel like they don't have a place to actually do, getting the news to their parents
and also bringing in that change or the dollars or the monetary donations they can provide is really
tremendous. It gives us a lot of momentum. One more way that students can be involved as well as
the staff is that we are planning hats off to the Bryan ISD build in partnership with Habitat for
(04:08):
Humanity. The Friday before Halloween, in October, we're going to ask all the staff members and our
students to consider donating one dollar to wear a hat and all the money raised will go towards the
project. So that's really a cool project because we have almost 16,000 students and almost 3,000
employees. If everyone paid that one dollar and wore the hat and we collected all that money
(04:30):
that would be nineteen thousand dollars raised in just one day by everyone simply giving one dollar,
so we are really excited about that. There's gonna be a lot of information that's going to come out
about it and we're going to need students to help promote that and to participate.
That's amazing, what do you hope that the students will gain from partnering with this project?
We hope that every single student from pre-k through grade 12 will learn this
(04:55):
most important lesson of serving their community and giving back. We talk about
the essential eight in character development and this is an opportunity to walk and to
put all that we've been learning about for character development into play,
into motion, and then we hope that when our students graduate from Bryan ISD they will
remember this. They'll remember when they were in eighth grade that they built a house or they
(05:16):
were in kindergarten and they helped build a house and that they will be intrinsically
motivated as a citizen who lives among us to continue to serve their community in some way.
My first real interaction with Habitat for Humanity was when I was in college. I was
from Texas City and came to Texas A&M University and then volunteered for Habitat for Humanity
in Bryan. I can still drive by the house that I built so there's a legacy there that I feel and
(05:40):
even establishing like the Merrell roots and so the opportunity to give each of our students this
opportunity to be a part of it helps create the legacy for them. They can remember when
they built that house or they painted those ceilings or those walls. I can remember when
I painted the ceiling and the paint all over me and just what fun I had being out there with my
friends and learning how to do roofs and things that I didn't really understand at the time,
(06:01):
but habitat really worked with us to fully understand it and allowed us to participate,
that legacy I think is really important; living out that essential eight is critical.
I hope that our community will partner with us you know. If they want to support us financially
that would be fantastic, but if they just want to participate in some of our events and help tell
(06:25):
our story, and to have a better awareness of the need to provide affordable housing for a deserving
family in our community I hope that we can all rally together and stand united to ultimately give
back to our citizens in Bryan ISD in this way.Absolutely, and is there anything else we
would like to add about this project or any upcoming events that you all have planned?
(06:48):
I would just like to remind everyone that we have a lot of information on our Bryan ISD website so
you can go to bryanisd.org\build and learn more about this. We even have a QR code if anyone wants
to make a donation it goes straight to PayPal and it'll go towards the build so any donation,
any amount, or any amount of awareness or any promotion would be most helpful. We're going to
(07:13):
be at all the games, football games, so you can find us immediately when you walk into Merrell
Green Stadium to your right. And I'd like to give a shout-out to Mary Russ and Shelby Goodman just
for their support. There are so many people that have just said ‘look, We believe in this
and we're going to support it but in particular they built this house so when you walk in you're
going to see this really. It's fairly large, it's a facade of a house that we're asking people to
(07:34):
take pictures in front of and around and we had it at the Bryan High game last Friday night. It was
fun to watch the community just come out and use that. It's going to be moved around. We're going
to be at First Friday so you'll see us at the Voices for Children. We've partnered with them
and they're allowing us to be outside of their storefront and so we're handing out information
there. What Mrs. Carrabine talked about so you're going to see us at community events.
(07:56):
The ambassadors and just students, they're just amazing. They believe in Habitat for Humanity,
they believe in Bryan ISD and they just see this as a natural partnership and so we're going to be
at the Wixon Valley and National Night Out, you're going to see, really habitat being
broadcast because it's a worthwhile organization.Yes, and I want to give a shout-out to the Bryan
ISD build a core team. There have been some teachers and administrators involved
(08:19):
in this for months. We actually started talking about this last year, gauging the
interest and there was a lot of interest and then we started planning the plan. So,
we've been working on this for months and months and months and then we launched it officially in
August so we're super excited about everyone that's already involved and all the people who
will become involved also another shout-out to Dr. Bryan Merrell who's joining us today
(08:40):
because he's rallying the troops. We actually got to work the concession
stand at the football game on Friday night so lots of students showed up. I understand
that we raised almost a thousand dollars that night. It was a great night, super exciting,
That is amazing. Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to talk with us today. We
look forward to hearing more about the build in the coming months as well as we will continue to
(09:04):
provide coverage and updates. Thank you so much.Thank you.
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