BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) – Appalachia Service Project (ASP) waved its own green flag today as three teams representing different colleges started constructing homes for those in need.
The 2023 Race to Build kicked off Thursday morning outside Bristol Motor Speedway. Teams from Kent State University, the University of Nebraska and Tennessee College of Applied Technology Elizabethton began working on homes for three local families.
The Race to Build lasts through Saturday with each team hoping to finish work on a new home for the ASP recipients. Race fans in town for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend and the rest of the public are invited to watch the progress of the homes.
“They are racing to do a good thing, but we are judging them also on their speed, on their efficiency, on their safety,” said Julie Knott, the ASP director of new build and disaster recovery. “That’s of utmost importance to us this weekend, and so they are going to frame these houses up, and we’re going to try to get them dried in so from the outside when you come back on Saturday they should look like completed houses on the outside. And we’ll take them back to Johnson City where we will rough them in.”
The winning team is awarded scholarships to their college’s construction programs.
The newly constructed homes are presented to their new owners at the end of the Race to Build. ASP previously identified the recipients, which included a U.S. Army veteran who suffers from ongoing disabilities stemming from combat injuries.
