Home on the Hill

One campus group is working to make it easier for students to find a home on campus while simultaneously working to make a difference in the community.

The $100 Solution House and its residents are trying to share their unique home with the greater WKU community.

Burkesville junior Kurtis Spears has lived in the house for two years.

“We want this house to be a place where the community feels welcome,” Spears said. “We want the community to be comfortable with using us as a resource if they need to.”

The house is co-sponsored by the Alive Center in Bowling Green, Housing and Residence Life and the $100 Solution organization. The $100 Solution project challenges community members to make a difference using exactly $100.

Residents of the house are required to work together to carry out at least two service-learning projects per semester. This week, the group of five students are planning their open house along with a meal. Both the meal and the open house took place on Wednesday.

Karina Bruce, a Louisville junior who lives in the house, hopes the event helps spread awareness about their services.

“One of the reasons for the open house is so we can get out there, and people can see what we do and how we live here,” Bruce said.

The group has focused on the issue of hunger by working with the Office of Sustainability to assist with food distribution to students in need. The inspiration for incorporating a meal with the open house goes all the way back to Thanksgiving, when the residents decided to serve dinner to international students who might not be able to make it home.

“We thought, ‘Why not have this huge dinner?’” Bruce said. “We looked back and evaluated that and thought, ‘Why stop there?’”

The founder and chief advisor of the $100 Solution House, Bernie Strenecky, said the house’s goal can be put simply: work to make WKU and Bowling Green better places to live.

“If indeed you are fortunate enough to be able to attend a university, we have a moral responsibility to give back,” Strenecky said. “It’s not an option; it’s a responsibility.”

Strenecky founded the $100 Solution House with the knowledge that not all social issues have to be solved with millions of dollars. That’s the kind of thinking the house’s residents hope to carry forward with their service-learning projects.