Soon, Klein said, building houses for people in need became his primary activity in college, both from a service perspective and how he spent time with his own social circle.
“I really got into the traveling,” Klein said. “While a lot of my classmates spent spring breaks going to places to party, I went and built houses.”
Klein, who is originally from Chicago, graduated from UD with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After graduating, he ended up getting a job with Montgomery County and eventually, with the City of Dayton, where he currently works in the Department of Economic Development.
Though Klein became involved in other projects over the years, he never forgot the time he spent in college, traveling the world to build houses with Habitat International. So as he was approaching his 40th birthday, he added a “bucket list” item to his schedule, and vowed to take another international service trip.
“I have built houses in Hungary, Mexico, Belfast, New Orleans, Dallas, Miami and of course, here in Dayton,” Klein said. “So when I heard about a unique local partnership with DECA (Dayton Early College Academy), a charter school here in Dayton, I knew I had to be involved.”
The DECA program is a mentoring opportunity for high school students that involves local adults already working with Habitat International who volunteer to raise the funds to pay for not only their own mission trips but also to send one student on a “trip of a lifetime.”
“In February, I will go build a house in Nicaragua,” Klein said. “We’ve been telling the students about our past experiences with traveling and volunteering during monthly meetings.”
Klein has set up a fundraising page to help raise money to send one student to Nicaragua and he has surpassed his original goal. In March during their spring break, students from DECA will travel to the same place in Nicaragua and follow in their mentors’ footsteps.
“Learning about Nicaragua and the challenges they face has been interesting,” Klein said. “Eighty percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day. And it’s easy to forget in our country how difficult it is to survive in other countries.”
Klein also volunteered with Big Brothers, Big Sisters while he was still in his 20s and was matched with a young man who happened to be a student at DECA. So he was already familiar with the school and its students.
Each adult Habitat mentor in the DECA collaboration program is given a dollar amount to either raise or fund themselves. Seasoned mentors also help prepare the students to travel overseas, talk to them about what to expect with the language barrier and share details about the best way to pack for the week-long trip.
“This has inspired me to do a lot of thinking,” Klein said. “Working with students who come from disadvantaged situations themselves and making myself available and sharing my experiences has been rewarding. I’m glad to be leading by example.”
For more information about Habitat International, log on to habitat.org
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