“As Masters, we are interested in exploring a larger House involvement,” Palfrey writes in an e-mail. “We are very excited to hear what Lowell House is doing and eager to learn from them how they plan to proceed with fundraising...If there is student enthusiasm for this project, we will be most interested in pursuing it further.”

And Thomas says that Harvard Habitat would like to see Lowell organizers’ excitement spill over to the other Houses.

“We’d love to see this extend to other Houses and have community service be almost like a competition. There’s an element of House spirit that can come into a fundraising project,” says Thomas, a Quincy resident.

Ultimately, says the partnership’s fundraising coordinator John C. Passanese ’06, success will be measured by increasing the awareness of community service among participants.

“To achieve what we want to—to raise $20,000 and to get the involvement—that’s going to take participation on everyone’s part to do that,” says Passanese, who was tapped for the project in part because he owns and runs a landscaping business in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.

“If we didn’t raise a dime but showed people an example of what they can do to benefit the community and the world, then we’ve done our job,” says Passanese.

—Staff writer Alan J. Tabak can be reached at tabak@fas.harvard.edu.