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New Habitat home ends family’s ‘amazing journey’
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Joann Collins and her two children — 12-year-old Antonette Bell and 16-year-old Derrick Bell — place their hands upon a wall to bless their new home during a Habitat for Humanity housed edication ceremony Sunday.
By Sean Barron
STRUTHERS
Twelve-year-old Antonette Bell is looking forward to sliding across the kitchen floor in her socks, and her 16-year-old brother, Derrick Bell, can’t wait to set up and begin playing one of his Xbox games.
Many children their age probably take such activities for granted. But Antonette and Derrick soon will be doing these and many other things in their first house.
“I’m completely overwhelmed. We’ve never lived in an actual house as a family,” their tearful mother, Joann Collins, said during a Habitat for Humanity house-dedication ceremony Sunday in her new home at 635 Lincoln Ave.
“This has been such an amazing journey for us.”
Collins, who works as a bank teller, said one of the first items on her to-do list is planting gardens and sprucing up her yard after the weather breaks.
Also moving in will be Collins’ husband, Derrick, a subcontractor for Lowe’s Home Improvement, who was unable to attend the gathering.
Dedicating the one-story, 1,150-square-foot home was Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County. The occasion marked the 40th house the agency has dedicated since 1989, noted Monica Craven, Habitat’s executive director.
Sponsors were ReStore Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County, Federal Home Loan Bank, FirstEnergy and JP Morgan Chase.
Construction of the gray, three-bedroom and one-bath residence got underway last August. The family bought the home today (from HFHMC with a 0 percent interest loan to be paid over 30 years, after having fulfilled the required 400 hours of sweat equity.
To that end, Collins has worked at ReStore as well as assisted with other area Habitat for Humanity homes, Craven said.
“She’s been all over the Habitat map,” Craven added.
The home is to receive a five-star-plus energy rating, which will mean lower energy-consumption and bills, as well as an efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, Craven noted. In addition, she said, many items to fill the residence will come from ReStore, which sells new and used furnishings and accepts donations.
More than 290 volunteers and entities worked on the home throughout the fall and winter, noted Colin Penney, Habitat’s volunteer coordinator.
Among them were Humility of Mary Health Partners, Boardman-based Bridge of Hope, the Youngstown Phantoms and Youngstown State University. Also contributing was United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley during its Day of Caring campaign, Penney continued.
During Sunday’s gathering, the family received additional gifts such as a new washing machine and dryer, assorted tools and garden equipment, gift certificates and a Bible. The washer and dryer were especially welcome because the family has been without them since a sewage line broke eight years ago in their townhouse, Collins recalled.
Collins also agreed to sponsor a home in Cambodia, one of nine countries Habitat for Humanity serves. A $4,000 tithe is to go to that country.
After the ceremony Sunday, it appeared that the reality of a new home hadn’t quite sunk in for Derrick, a Struthers High School 10th-grader. “I just can’t believe it,” he said.