4/28/07
By Holly Fesperman Lee, Salisbury Post
You may have seen offenders on probation doing community service, but you might not know that probation officers also do their share of community work.
Probation and parole officers from around the region have been working on a Habitat for Humanity house on Celebration Drive in Salisbury since mid-March.
This is the third house that the N.C. Probation and Parole Association has sponsored in Rowan County.
"We try to do a community project every year. It's been very successful, and everyone feels good about it," Rose Cox, Judicial District Three manager, said this week.
Cox explained that the state is divided into four judicial districts, and Rowan County is one of 11 counties in District 3. About 120 probation and parole officers will participate from this district.
"Last Friday, we had a group from Ashe County working," she said. "We're all kind of pulling together."
David Rowh, Habitat for Humanity construction supervisor, was helping volunteers build a deck on the back of the Celebration Drive house Wednesday morning.
Matthew McBirney, a probation officer in Guilford County, said he enjoys working with Habitat for Humanity and meeting co-workers from different counties.
"It's just a way to give back to the community ... and it helps to maintain a good rapport," Tara Richardson, a probation officer from Union County, said.
Richardson worked on a Habitat house two years ago as well. "I enjoy it. I just think it's a good cause," she said.
Janet Ruffin works as a community service coordinator in Rowan County, placing offenders with service projects. She worked on the house earlier in the construction process, helping put the floor down. Ruffin was back Wednesday to put the deck up.
"I've learned a lot just coming out here helping," she said.
She explained that state employees get 24 hours each year to do community service projects, and "it's a great way to be able to use that time," she said.
"I think it's important to give back to the community ... to give somebody a home," Ruffin said.
Dennis Rivers, a probation officer in Rowan County, was helping put bolts in the top of the deck on the back of the house Wednesday.
He enjoys community service because it's a way to give back to those less fortunate. Rivers, a former fraternity member, told some of his fraternity brothers at Livingstone College about the project.
Jonathan Joiner, a member of the Lambda Psi chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and a sophomore at Livingstone, joined the probation officers as they worked on the house Wednesday.
He said the fraternity stresses community service, so when Rivers told him about the opportunity, "we jumped on it quickly."
Groups from the N.C. Probation and Parole Association work on the Celebration Drive house every Wednesday and Friday.
Rowh said the house is about halfway finished and should be be complete in June.
SOURCE: Salisbury Post
