Habitat dedicates its 150th home
Garland County Habitat for Humanity is ending its 25th year on a high note, having dedicated its 150th home on Dec. 19.
The local Habitat for Humanity organization launched in 1995, and reached the milestone of 150 homes with the dedication of the Simmons family home at 231 Garland St.
“It’s a big day for us, it’s a pretty emotional day,” said Cindy Wagstaff, Habitat’s executive director. “What a great way to cap off our 25th anniversary.”
While Habitat has been building for 25 years, Wagstaff said she has only been with the organization for the past six years.
“I feel like I get to reap the rewards of seeds planted long ago,” she said. Her first home dedication was house No. 117.
Each of the more than 30 dedications she has attended has been memorable, Wagstaff said. “Each one has its own flavor.”
The 150th home was built for Stevie Simmons and her daughters Ka’Leah and Heaven.
Stevie Simmons told The Sentinel-Record she was “just overjoyed” about seeing the finished home. “It’s been a long time coming, but I’m so thankful and glad to be here,” she said, noting, it’s “everything I could want and more.”
Wagstaff said the Simmons sisters were thankful for the house. “I’ve never seen a 5-year-old be excited about a toilet and a dishwasher. You just don’t realize what it means to a child. As a kid I never paid any attention to the fact that our house had a toilet,” she said.
Habitat pairs the families with
advocates to help them to be prepared to be homeowners, Wagstaff said, noting Simmons family’s advocates were Dave and Vonda Mason. Dave Mason said the Simmons family is the fifth they have helped through the process of getting a Habitat home, and they are already working with two more families.
The Masons have worked with the Simmons family for over two years to get to this point.
“I think she’s wonderful, and her girls are wonderful,” Vonda Mason said. Dave Mason said it was “fun to get to know the family.”
Vonda Mason said that in an effort to help the children have a closer attachment to their new home, they asked each child what color they wanted their bedroom to be painted. “We buy the paint and the girls help with the roller,” she said, noting the sisters “did a pretty good job.”
“It makes the rooms more theirs,” Vonda Mason said.
As far as the milestone of 150 homes, Dave Mason said “I think it’s amazing.”
He quoted another homeowner he advocated for: “Every day I wake up and I say I own this house. I never thought I’d be a homeowner.”
“He’s lived the American dream,” Dave Mason said.
As with every Habitat home dedication, a crowd of well-wishers was in attendance, including Jerry Jones, Habitat construction supervisor, who said he has been volunteering with Habitat for 12 to 15 years.
“I’m proud to be part of it, it’s great,” Jones said. He noted some of the volunteers have been helping longer than he has.
The volunteers are “great; lot of volunteers have been here for years,” he said.
Todd Green, Habitat board president, welcomed everybody to the dedication and called it “an honor just to be a part of it.”
“We’ve helped 150 different families establish a homestead. It’s great,” he said, noting the way they have provided these families homes was done “in a financially responsible way, too.”
“It’s a tremendous milestone,” Romeo Lopez, manager at Habitat’s Downtown ReStore, said, noting the dedication was around the 15th he has attended since he joined Habitat around four years ago.
Lopez said he supports the work of Habitat because of how much it helps the families.
“You saw the reaction of the homeowner and her kids. Those kids will now have a house to grow up in,” he said, noting it “inspires their future success.”
During the dedication, Wagstaff announced Bob Urban was the Volunteer of the Year and presented him with an engraved hammer.
She said Urban is a dedicated volunteer who has made their build sites both easier and safer. She noted Urban is an engineer, and when he saw how the volunteers were putting decking on the roofs of the buildings, “he felt it could be done more efficient and safer. He designed an apparatus to get materials up there faster and safer.”
Wagstaff said Urban volunteers on both hot and cold days, calling him “one of the leaders.”