Different groups, including students, staff and sports teams, volunteered for three-hour shifts starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, with the last shift at 9 a.m. the following morning.
The event, located at the College's build site a short distance east of the bird sanctuary, included working on the first Habitat house, as well as a wall raising on a second house Saturday morning.
Ricardo Bilton '10, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, noted the importance of the College's role in this event. "The College's relationship with Habitat is the first of its kind," he said. "Amherst donating money for land and building to Habitat definitely is significant."
"The Amherst site is really a great place for us students to go because it was donated by the school to have four houses built on it over a four-year period," said Laura Vincent '09, the president of the College's chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
The groups participating in "24 at 24" varied from the Physical Plant to the crew team to the Office of Public Affairs. Event organizers hoped to have eight people working each shift and quickly achieved and even surpassed this goal as each group showed up with more volunteers.
One impressive accomplishment was the interest expressed by the Class of 2011. When Habitat found that it still needed volunteers for the less-desirable Saturday 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. shift, Dean of New Students and Professor of Psychology Allen Hart recruited so many first years to work that 12 had to be turned away because of size limitations.
Catherine Bryers '11 helped out at the early "sunrise shift." "I thought it was fantastic to see a bunch of people who wanted to help out," said Bryers. "The students at Amherst are presented with great opportunities in attending the school, so it is only fair-and definitely rewarding-to give to others in the same spirit.
"Also, it was fun to see some students from UMass working at the house as well," Bryers added. "That factor definitely added to a sense of community. Service is a great way to find community."
"24 at 24" was one of the events celebrating the opening of the College's new Center for Community Engagement. Vincent was pleased with the large amount of publicity surrounding the occasion. "When the community and the student body are excited about a Habitat project, then they speak about it to people, and that is what the organization of Habitat for Humanity is about," she said. "Not only spreading awareness about the issues of homelessness and inequalities in home ownership, but also providing an outlet for people to help improve the situation."
As Bilton explained, "Anything that gets students off campus and out into the community is a good thing."