By SHARON MOORE

Staff Writer

Epsey Samuel will have a house to call home in June.

A Habitat for Humanity team worked on Samuel's house March 27 mudding the cracks and holes in the walls.

"This is not the fun part; this is the work part," Jim Tuten, president of the Ruston affiliate for Habitat for Humanity, said.

The Louisiana Tech Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter is an affiliate of the Ruston chapter, and both are members of Humanity International.

"They are affiliated with each other and help each other out," Kimberly Ludwig, president of the organization and a senior business management and entrepreneurship major, said.

The university chapter has been in the paperwork process for three years, active for two years and they were chartered in February.

Ludwig said there are three aspects of Habitat for Humanity: construction, fund-raising and educational awareness.

"We show people that poverty is real and it exists," Ludwig said.

Though the university chapter is affiliated with the Ruston chapter, they are each their own entities.

Ludwig said the Ruston group is referred to as the "skilled people" because they are older and have been doing this longer. The university group is responsible mostly for manpower.

"We can get the masses of volunteers out there," Ludwig said.

Tuten said without the university affiliate, the house would not be near its current state of repair.

"They've been a lifesaver," Tuten said.

Saturday's workers included representatives from the Society for Women Engineers at Tech and the Sigma Pi and Sigma Nu fraternities.

"If not for them, I know it definitely wouldn't be this far," Samuel said.

Students interested in learning about or helping Habitat for Humanity can send an e-mail to habitat4humanity@latech.edu or call the Louisiana Tech Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter president Kimberly Ludwig at 513-1439.