By Staff
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those volunteers who last week gave of themselves to help Habitat for Humanity with their building blitz.
While much of the attention was focused on Benton Harbor June 19-24 and the Jimmy Carter Work Project, local communities were also completing projects.
Across Michigan, 232 new homes were dedicated that Friday, which made home ownership a reality for many.
More than 1,000 lives were changed by the project.
In Dowagiac, volunteers built two homes. One for Stacy Pulliam's family, the other for Lindsay Merrill's family.
In Niles, the Houck family took the keys to their new home on Friday, too.
It is very easy for one to say they are going to get out and help someone else. It is something altogether different when they actually follow through on their promise.
Thousands of volunteers did follow through on their promises to help build homes for others.
They beat the heat and the deadline to finish the job.
They did not do so because they wanted to see their names in the paper or see their faces on television.
They do so to see the smiles on the faces of husbands and wives and children who will lives in homes of their very own, many for the first time in their lives.
They do so because they feel it is the right thing to do.
Joan Schmidt, president of the Niles-Buchanan Habitat for Humanity, hit the nail on the head when she said, "It is always a great time when we can dedicate a new house."
The gratitude of those who take the keys to a new home was best revealed by the remarks of Dowagiac's Lavina Pulliam.
That's the kind of thanks volunteers love to hear when they complete a project.
They know they have started something that will be continued in the future by others.
Perhaps that is what makes Habitat for Humanity such a great success.
They say success breeds success.
Nowhere is that more evident than with Habitat and most recently with the Jimmy Carter Work Project right here in our own backyard.