SPENCER — Habitat for Humanity has transformed numerous lives by putting home ownership within reach of vulnerable individuals. On Wednesday, Future Business Leaders of America from Carson High School participated in that community service.

Just down the road from the 8th Street Ball Field in Spencer, two houses are coming together, thanks in part to the work of Kayla Hernandez and her fellow FBLA members. Hernandez is Carson High’s FBLA president.

“I was really excited when I found out we would get to do this,” Hernandez said. “Especially with the group of people that we have, we can joke around, but they have all been taking it very seriously and have worked well together.”

The work is part of FBLA’s community-service-project component, which they do throughout the year. The Habitat build is just one of the projects.

“We have a list of things every season,” Hernandez said. “We have to come up with an idea, and we act on it and keep it going.”

Last year, Carson FBLA went to Rowan Helping Ministries for the community service project but split up to accomplish various tasks.

Hernandez said she liked the Habitat build because they were all working at the same place at the same time.

“We are all doing one thing, so I think it has been really fun for us to bond,” Hernandez said.

The FBLA president was impressed by her club members’ efforts on Wednesday.

“We have been pretty productive today,” Hernandez said. “I was actually a bit surprised. I thought we might struggle a little bit with staying on task.”

Those tasks included putting up siding and building a French drain.

“We all have to keep each other on track because we have to alternate between things,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said that the work they were doing on Wednesday was a first for her and other FBLA members.

“We came in kind of scared, like, we have never done anything like this, but everyone has been really supportive,” Hernandez said.

Still, in the end, it was worth it to be making a positive impact in the community.

“Different clubs do different things around the school,” Hernandez said. “Our club was pretty small before this year, but now a lot of people have turned up. It has been really nice to see everyone grow and expand and help the community.”

J.C. Alexander and Kelly Hester are business teachers at Carson High and advisers for career and technical education (CTE).

“We reached out as part of one of our community service projects for Future Business Leaders of America,” Alexander said. “We were looking around the community to see what we could do.”

While Alexander mainly knows his students from the classroom setting, its was refreshing to see them roll up their sleeves and get to work on Wednesday.

“It’s been an awesome experience seeing all the different students we have who are part of business class but are out here doing hands-on construction,” Alexander said. “For some of them, this might be the first time they have messed with tools and doing labor like this. It’s been very eye-opening, and they seem to have enjoyed the experience so far.”

Rowan-Salisbury CTE coordinator Kresen Whitmarsh also arranged for middle-school students from North Rowan to come to the build and check it out. Middle schoolers are too young to work on the site, but Whitmarsh hopes it might light a spark.

“Seeing this gets them engaged and might encourage them to participate when they are of age to do so,” Whitmarsh said. “Especially since some of them will be FBLA students someday as well.”

The students from North Rowan Middle came from various grades and classes. The eighth-grade group was from an exploring trades course. Ashley Ellis, who teaches a business marketing and entrepreneurial class of sixth graders, got to the build around 12:30 p.m. For her students, the experience matched with topics they had learned about in class.

“My students are learning about nonprofit organizations and their purpose,” Ellis said. “This is good because Habitat for Humanity is one of the popular nonprofit organizations.

“The kids were a little bit curious. Of course, they have to learn first, what is a nonprofit, and what is the purpose of it? Now, it is putting reality to the content that we teach.”

For one student, it was particularly close to home.

“We actually have a student who spotted one of her family members creating their own house,” Ellis said. “It’s all just connecting the curriculum and pooling everything together.”