Wesleyan University announced it has donated a duplex, once used for student housing near the outskirts of campus, to the Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity chapter. More than 50 Wesleyan students, faculty and staff volunteers will start work on the 34-36 Fairview Ave. house in the fall, university officials said.

The university is going through efforts to consolidate and centralize its campus, and has donated the Colonial house to the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, Wesleyan’s media relations associate director Laura Perillo said. Student volunteers from WeShelter, the Wesleyan Habitat for Humanity student chapter, are expected to assist with the project. The student chapter assisted in the creation of the Northern Middlesex Habitat chapter in 1996, she said.

"The university is looking at turning house back to the community," said Frank Kuan, Wesleyan University’s director of community relations. The Fairview Avenue house has been vacant and the university took the opportunity to give it back. "This is a great community thing to do."

"We’re excited about this opportunity," Kuan said."It’s a win-win situation for the community and university. It can be retrofitted and refurbished."

Earlier this week, 30 applicant families registered to be interviewed for a Habitat house, Northern Middlesex Habitat Executive Director Joyce Yarrow said. There are 60 people on the waiting list, she added.

The local chapter is in the process of selecting a family to live in the Fairview Avenue residence upon renovation, Perillo said. The selected family will buy the house with no interest, a no-profit mortgage and will also help the volunteers reconstruct their new house under trained supervision.

The selected family must put in at least 200 hours of sweat equity into the house renovation, Yarrow said.

"We’re absolutely thrilled," said Yarrow of the donation. Officials had been working with university officials on this first donation from the school. "We’re very excited to receive the Fairview house."

"We’re most grateful to Wesleyan, and we look forward to a long-term relationship," she said.

Half of the families served by Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity are from Middletown, with the remainder being from throughout Middlesex County. Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing organization.

Anyone interested in volunteering for Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity projects can call Yarrow at (860)343-9179. Donations can be sent to North Middlesex Habitat for Humanity c/o South Congregational Church, 9 Pleasant St., Middletown, Conn. 06457.

To contact Amy L. Zitka, call (860)347-3331 ext. 211 or e-mail azitka@middletownpress.com.