Third Annual 'Poly House' Set: Cal Poly Class Tackles $20,000 Home Renovation for Disabled Family

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Cal Poly Professor Roya Javadpour and her project management class are about to do their third home renovation service project, this time for an elderly San Luis Obispo woman and her disabled daughter and disabled grandchild.

Javadpour's students have raised some $20,000 in donations of cash, building materials and other assistance for repairs and improvements on a home shared by a 75-year old woman, fragile with diabetes, blindness and age-related illnesses, and her 54-year old caregiver-daughter, also suffering from disabilities.

In the third annual "Poly House" project, the students will work on the San Luis Obispo home on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 12, 13 and 14, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 19, 20 and 21.

The project goals are to improve the safety and comfort of the women's home and to complete household repairs that would otherwise go undone. The clients are Marie Petraeus and her daughter, Carla Henderson, who has physical disabilities and chronic depression stemming from a work-related accident.

Henderson's condition includes severe nerve damage in her legs and constant pain. Henderson cares for both her mother and her own mentally and physically handicapped child. Because of her depression, physical disabilities, and overwhelming caregiver stress, Henderson has not had the energy nor the means to maintain the family home.

"The project opens students' eyes to social need and community service," Javadpour said.

Each year Javadpour and her students work with social service agencies to find potential Poly House project clients. "There are a lot of families who have a need for help, but we also have to find someone with a home that offers a suitably complex set of issues for the students to tackle in a renovation," she said.

The educational purpose of the class is to give students hands-on experience planning and managing a technical project involving fundraising, scheduling, supply management, team recruitment, resource allocation, time and cost budgeting, risk assessment, task coordination, project monitoring, and post-project assessment, Javadpour explained.

Javadpour's project management students come from a variety of backgrounds, including business, engineering management, and industrial and manufacturing engineering.

Central Coast businesses and construction companies gave the Poly House project tremendous support this year, the professor said. A complete list of supporters will be available on the class Web site at: www.polyhouse.org.

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Editors Please Note: Professor Javadpour and her Poly House student team invite you to cover the construction work. For the address of the home and specific work times and work schedule, contact Javadpour at the above phone number, or contact Teresa Hendrix at 756-7266 or thendrix@calpoly.edu for Professor Javadpour's cell phone number.

The professor suggests that demolition work May 12 and interior drywall installation and roofing (May 13) would make excellent photo opportunities. Professor Javadpour also suggests May 20 for flooring work, or May 21 when the family returns to see their renovated home as good photo and story opportunities.