Retired United States Army Sergeant First Class Shellie C. Dick Sr. is Shellie Dick II’s hero. His father is his “G.I. Joe”.
U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Shellie C. Dick Sr. served this country for 41 years, after being drafted at the age of 19, and his son, who is the Kingwood High School Construction Trades Teacher, talks about his father with pride.
On Tuesday, Dick had another prideful moment as his students dedicated and unveiled the program’s first-ever Tiny Home, which will become a future home of a homeless veteran through Barbara Lange, who is the founder of the Langtree Retreat and Eco Center, where the home will be placed.
“It means a lot to me,” Dick said. “It means a lot to the kids to see the needs of others and help those in need that fought for this country. This is not just the kids getting together and making friendships, we’re helping lives.”
Kingwood High School Tiny Homes Construction Lead Spencer Godell added: “It means everything to us, veterans are the whole reason we are doing the project.”
Kingwood High School is the third high school to produce a Tiny Home as a part of the Tiny Homes Project in Humble ISD.
The first Tiny Home for Kingwood High School started as an idea back in 2017 when Kingwood High School and Summer Creek High School were combined campuses due to damage from Hurricane Harvey. Dick saw what the SCHS Tiny Home Program was doing and it inspired him to look into it and learn about it and who they were doing it for.
In January of 2021, Dick approached Kingwood High School Principal Dr. Michael Nasra about his program doing their first Tiny Home. Hence started the 18-month process, which came to fruition with the dedication of their first home.
“It was a slow process for us because it was so unknown,” Dick said. “It was a new situation and we wanted to make sure we didn’t mess up. We learned a lot from the first couple of months. A lot of little things came with it. Eighteen months later, I’m proud. I’m ecstatic.”
In the project, Godell was assisted by captains Jackson Snowden, Ethan Kilmer and James Welsh along with the 25 other Kingwood High School students who helped complete this project, which spanned the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.
Throughout the process of this school year, Godell – who is planning to become a firefighter after graduation – learned a lot about leadership.
“I developed as a leader because I became more relaxed, at the beginning of the year I was micro-managing people,” Godell said. “As the year went on, I started to trust them and let them become experts on the subject and let them do it. If they had any overall questions, I’d answer them.”
As the final touches are completed to their first Tiny Home before it is transported out to its final home at the Langtree Retreat and Eco Center, work has already begun on Tiny Home No. 2.
“Number two has already been in the works since about three months ago as far as planning,” Dick said. “We have our new leads coming in and they are young, ambitious and they are ready to get started. They have seen what these guys have done and they want to take over.”
A special thanks to sponsors like Tandem, INC, Raven Mechanical, VMV Electrical, Operation Finally Home, Lowe's and Valspar for helping make this happen.
