“Use the short nails, girls,” shouted Larry Thornton, to a group of sorority women on Saturday morning.

Thornton, general contractor for Portage County Habitat for Humanity, gave advice at the Freedom House construction project for veterans, which is drawing in many Kent State student volunteers, including Greek groups.

Delta Gamma sorority volunteered in shifts from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the construction site.

Saturday was the third day of work on the project. The focus was building the roof system for the entire house, Thornton said.

Jessie Sinur, Delta Gamma member and junior psychology major, volunteered with her sorority that day.

“We like to get our organization known and get involved in the community,” Sinur said.

Eric Hummel, general contractor and owner of Hummel Construction, said the house is designed for veterans coming home from war.

“It’s a very worthwhile project,” Hummel said. “If we’re going to have all these damn wars, we better have a place for the veterans to come home to.”

Many Kent State groups have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and Family and Community Services of Portage County to build the new house.

Members of Delta Upsilon fraternity, the sport administration Freshman Interest Group and Kent State’s chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars attended Saturday.

“It’s hands-on, hard labor and you get to see the results,” Sinur said. “We’re surprisingly pretty good at construction.”

Unlike a 5K walk, for example, there’s a final product with this project, Sinur said.

The house is projected to be completed by Christmas time, Hummel said.

“We’ve got to give something back to our community and to our country and to our displaced soldiers that went and fought in these terrible wars,” Hummel said.

Contact Greek life reporter Tracy Tucholski at [email protected].