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June 24, 2012

Habitat volunteers working on 48th and 49th Dalton homes

Rachel Brown rachelbrown@daltoncitizen.com

Sweating and dirty, Jessica Lewallen emerged from the back of a partially sealed in house she is helping build into near-100 degree heat.

“I’m just very blessed,” she said. “I couldn’t be more grateful.”

The 32-year-old single mother of two is a recipient of one of two houses Dalton-Whitfield’s Habitat for Humanity chapter is building. Recipient families pay off interest-free loans on their houses. Because so many of the materials are donated and labor provided through volunteer work, the costs of the houses is greatly reduced.

A swarm of volunteers, including about a dozen from Wells Fargo, were working on houses for Lewallen and Dalton resident Crystal Hernandez Saturday afternoon. Recipients are required to pitch in hundreds of volunteer hours on their own — 350 for a single parent and 400 for a couple — as a condition of the program.

Selection committee member Ann Kuzniak said there have been about 40 applicants in the last year and a half. Since its founding in 1987, the local Habitat chapter has completed 47 homes. Lewallen’s and Hernandez’s are Nos. 48 and 49.

Located off Ezzard Avenue, the homes are between 1,300 and 1,400 square feet and have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Lewallen said she had her first child when she was in high school but was able to earn her GED shortly after the child’s birth. She now works at Lowe’s and lives in an apartment in Rocky Face, but she said she wanted to provide something better for her children. Being able to stay in one place after moving around so much before will be wonderful, she said.

Hernandez, 23, said she learned about Habitat’s program after her mother received a house that way. A Beaulieu employee, Hernandez plans to move in with her three children, ages 7, 6 and 2, once the home is completed.

“It’s a big relief, actually,” she said. “We’ve just been moving from place to place.”

Habitat is a nonprofit organization funded partly by donations and partly by sales from the retail store at 1509 N. Thornton Ave. The store accepts new and gently used household items, which workers resell at a “substantially reduced cost,” according to a press release from the organization. “A shopper might find cabinetry, appliances, flooring, lighting fixtures, windows and plenty of other household items at a steal,” according to the release. “All proceeds are then used to fund the building of these homes.”

On top of that, there are several benefactors that support Habitat’s mission. Wells Fargo Bank presented the organization with a $15,000 grant to help build the two homes on Saturday.

Vivian Chance, executive director for Habitat, said the homes should be finished in four or five months.

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