Professor Emeritus Dick Neves has long been dedicated to community service projects supporting children in the small Haitian town of Pignon. In March, Neves accompanied a group of 13 students and two faculty members from Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Design and the Myers-Lawson School of Construction to Savanette, a community on the outskirts of Pignon, where they began constructing an addition to the existing school, which currently houses only four grades. The addition — two classrooms, storage rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom — will enable students to complete their primary school education as well as take a national exam to qualify for secondary school.

During the trip, the crew worked alongside Haitian laborers to dig the foundation and prepare the site for pouring the concrete. A Haitian contract manager in Pignon will oversee the project and report back on progress. After a long week’s work, the group challenged the local soccer team to a match at the school site.

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