NW Valley Times

On Saturday, Grand Canyon University's women's beach volleyball team participated in a community service event as part of the Lopes Go Local initiative. The team joined forces with Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona to paint the home of Gina Millsaps, a local principal at Constitution Elementary School.

Sophia Hladyniuk, a senior majoring in criminal justice and one of the players, expressed her enthusiasm for helping out. "We have Habitat for Humanity back home, and doing this just makes me interested in doing local outreach in my own community," she said. Her teammate Hailey Hutchings shared similar sentiments about volunteering. "I love giving back to the community," she stated.

Gina Millsaps has lived in her neighborhood for five years and appreciates the positive changes she's witnessed. She acknowledged GCU's involvement by saying, "I know that President (Brian) Mueller is deeply invested in this neighborhood because I’m an educator."

President Brian Mueller was among the volunteers assisting with painting Millsaps' house. He commented on the significance of supporting local families: “There’s just a lot of great families out here... Anything we can do to help make it better, to improve it, that’s why we’re out here.”

The partnership between GCU and Habitat for Humanity began a decade ago as part of their Neighborhood Revitalization initiative. Jason Barlow, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona, highlighted some achievements from this collaboration: about 600 unique families served and nearly 38,000 volunteer hours logged.

Volunteers like Maribell Maldonado and Ronak Gujrathi also took part in various projects throughout the day. Gujrathi noted his motivation: “Fulfillment,” he said, is why he loves doing these projects.

Erik Nelsen from Spiritual Life emphasized service as an expression of love towards others by quoting John 13:34-35 during the event.