District 214 students leave lasting legacy — tiny homes for veterans

Sometimes — just sometimes — an amazing learning opportunity aligns with a compelling cause to demonstrably change lives for the better.

So it was with the recent grand opening of Golden Isles Veterans’ Village in Brunswick, Georgia. Neither educators nor students from Northwest Suburban High School District 214 attended, but their fingerprints and positive contributions to the transitional tiny home community for homeless veterans were as evident as if they had made the 1,052-mile trip.

“The reality is we would have nothing if not for the work done by students in District 214,” said Megan Hostler, president and CEO of the Nine Line Foundation.

That’s high praise from the woman whose foundation provided the project’s vision and financing and who has painstakingly wrangled every laborious detail required to propel the project from concept to reality.

The village consists of 30 tiny homes and a large community center, where the veterans can gather, not only to socialize, but also to participate in counseling and therapy sessions, take classes and receive job training.

The tiny homes and community center? They were all constructed by District 214 students and staff and shipped to Georgia. While in a previous job, Hostler and Rolling Meadows High School division head Dave Wietrzak had collaborated on a project in which Geometry through Construction students built interior and exterior walls and roofing components for a full-sized house later assembled in Texas. John Hersey High School students raised funds for related expenses.

A couple of years later, Hostler had shifted her focus to transitional housing when, “out of blue” Wietrzak called to ask if she had upcoming projects on which his students could work. That led to District 214 students from Rolling Meadows and Buffalo Grove High Schools initially building 20 tiny homes for the Brunswick site.

“The kids got so into it, and it turned into a great civics lesson,” Hostler recalls. “I would send information about the foundation and the veterans we’re helping, and Jimmy (Miks, John Hersey High School English teacher) and Dave can turn anything into a learning lesson.”

District 214 students raised funds and helped pay to ship the tiny homes to Georgia. The pandemic’s arrival put the project on hold for awhile, but, in 2022, Rolling Meadows and Buffalo Grove High School students built 10 additional tiny houses and then tackled an even larger challenge: constructing a 30-by-60-foot community center for the veterans village.

“I gave Dave a picture on the back of a napkin and said, ‘Do you think you can come up with something?’ He came up with CAD drawings,” said Hostler, who enlisted the support of Bill Robinson, an architect from Nashville, Tenn., who donated his time — and the time and talents of his structural engineer to create final drawings. Thirty-five year Army veteran John Bartosh volunteered his time and talents as the project’s construction manager.

After the architect completed the drawings, students and teachers went to work, building the community center in just two days inside Forest View Educational Center, before disassembling it for shipping to Brunswick. The effort served as a capstone project for students in the Construction Management and Building Trades career pathway, and former Gov. Pat Quinn presided over a dedication ceremony.

“To see the integration of all these Buffalo Grove and Rolling Meadows students, all working together beautifully, was wonderful,” Hostler said.

District 214 educators concur. Sean Murrin, a Buffalo Grove High School Technical Education teacher, said at the time, “At first, the students’ attitude is ‘Oh, we’re just building stuff.’ But then they realize they’re not just building things; they’re changing lives. That’s what I love most about this.”

With structures in place at the Brunswick campus, Hostler continued the nitty-gritty detail work: obtaining permits; complying with zoning regulations; lining up local social service providers for veterans and continuing fundraising efforts. An executive director, social worker and volunteer director are now in place, as well as an operational board of directors — ready to direct the efforts from here as Hostler and Nine Line Foundation move on to the next project: completing an aquaponics training center which will provide job training in a healing environment for the residents of the Golden Isles Veterans Village and the Cove at Dundee, another tiny home community Nine Line Foundation built in partnership with the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless.

Hostler is confident that the focus on transitional housing and support services will drive success.

“It has to be transitional housing. We have to give the residents the confidence in themselves that they can heal — mentally, physically and emotionally, learn new job skills and move forward to be better life — once again the proud citizens they were while serving in the military. It is a matter of reaching out and providing a hand up, not a hand out, helping veterans learn new skills in the civilian sector so they can be productive, proud members of society.”

Long after the grand opening recedes in memory, and the work of the village continues, reminders of District 214’s contributions will remain. Hostler arranged for fundraising paver bricks to be installed in the site’s memorial area. Among the pavers: one recognizing each participating district school, one recognizing the district; one each expressing appreciation to Wietrzak and Miks and others recognizing all participating teachers.

One final reminder of 214’s dedication to this project: a beautiful handcrafted wooden American flag made by Seth Hettle of Prospect High School.