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It’s crunch time again for Team Sanders and its holiday home giveaway
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The clock is ticking again on Team Sanders, the nonprofit organization by William and Kiisha Sanders of Warren, to put a deserving family in a new home for Christmas.
For the third-consecutive December, Team Sanders is in the midst of a renovation project, this time for a family of five who has fallen on hard times but should be moving into a two-story century-old home on East Market Street near Linden Avenue by Dec. 21.
Wednesday, William and Kiisha and two other volunteers were hard at work removing staples that held down carpeting over hardwood floors, but there is still a lot more to do, and donations are needed to meet the deadline.
“It’s really crunch time,” Kiisha said as she led a tour through the home, showing a kitchen not yet equipped with cabinets and counters and a floor needing to be replaced. Donations are also needed to pay for the kitchen flooring, and they need a handyman or two as well.
A work party is planned for Saturday to focus on replacing the floors, but the upstairs bathroom still needs the walls surrounding the bathtub to become a shower, Kiisha said.
There are other wall projects to finish, and there’s lots of work needed to install donated insulation and drywall in the attic to provide the family with a fourth bedroom or play area. The couple is expecting a fourth child in about six months.
Team Sanders got a donation of siding, but is seeking a donation to install it.
Like the previous two years, Team Sanders acquired the home at no cost through the Trumbull County Land Bank.
Willliam Sanders, who runs an afterschool program in Warren schools and is an interventionist at the Jefferson Pre-K through Grade 8 School, said Team Sanders asked the school’s teachers and principal to recommend a family in greatest need this year.
“We want the people to know we want them to pay it forward,” William Sanders said of the families receiving the donated home.
Peggy Crowder, who received the Team Sanders home last Christmas to provide a new home for her granddaughter and two grandsons after a tragedy involving her daughter, was there Wednesday helping with the project.
She said she wanted to help with this year’s home and also, “I just love spending time with these two,” she said of William and Kiisha.
Anyone willing to help should contact Kiisha by email at teamsanders151@gmail.com. Their website is www.tsifan.com.