The least Jettlean Pettiford could do, she said, was mix up five gallons of lemonade for the teenagers who were toiling in the heat this summer, fixing her rickety front porch.

"My husband and I are pretty old," said Pettiford, 79, "and we just needed a ramp to get up and down the stairs."

The Pettifords couldn't do the work themselves and couldn't afford to pay a contractor. So the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition and a local contractor gathered up some high schoolers who had been taking carpentry classes and asked them if they'd like to do some work on their spring and summer breaks.

The projects were small, but they made a big impact.

All together, 10 sophomores and juniors from Southern and Hillside high schools and the New Horizons alternative school built ramps and handrails and fixed porches at five East Durham homes.

This week, county commissioners honored the students and the contractor who led them, George Digsby.

"More than anything else, I wanted these guys to give back to the community," said Digsby, who runs his own company and teaches part time at Southern. "I wanted them to feel like it was OK, even if they didn't get paid, to do the work because these people need it."

The projects gave the students a feel for the ethics of real site work, Digsby said. They learned how to cooperate with students from other schools and with other skill levels, Digsby said.

Student Lucas Ornelas, 17, said he hopes to join his father in his masonry business one day. And even though the weather was blazing hot, he said, he enjoyed it.

"I had a lot of fun. I didn't know the people," he said, "but it made me feel good to do something like that for somebody I didn't know."

The homeowners -- all low-income and elderly, disabled, or both -- had applied to the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition for help with these projects.

The coalition helps homeowners with maintenance, and most of the time the organization sends contracted plumbers and electricians to do the jobs. But there were some smaller carpentry jobs that the students could do, said Anita Oldham, director of the Affordable Housing Coalition.

The city agreed to give the coalition $12,000 to sponsor the student building program. The money paid for lumber and other materials, waste disposal, insurance and some small stipends for Digsby and the students, Oldham said.

"The students not only learned a craft, but they also learned how others live," Oldham said.

Among the folks they helped was Harris McKoy, 86, who uses a walker and was having trouble navigating his dilapidated wooden ramp, Digsby said. They built McKoy a new one.

They enjoyed Ms. Pettiford's lemonade.

And they even met famed Durham resident Ann Atwater, who lived next door to a house where they were building a ramp.

Atwater is a civil-rights activist best known for forging a friendship with a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.

Atwater chatted up the students, invited them into her home to see some of her awards, and, in a day or so, had persuaded them to build two ramps for her own home. The students had time and extra supplies, so they agreed to help Atwater, who uses a wheeled walker.

She had praise for Digsby and the students.

"We need more of that," she said. "This gentleman threw his arms around [the students] and showed them love. And at the same time, they were able to work and get a trade."

The students who participated were, from Southern: Nicolas Isaac, Lucas Ornelas, Daniel Rodriguez, Jonathan Carroll, Messiah Gattis and Langston Hines; from New Horizons School: Frederick Spain, Matthew Starks and Daniel Hinton; from Hillside: Mark Warren.