Project 77: July 2012

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Thank you!

RCCHS Class of 1977 says Thank You!

The generosity of our community has

made this project a reality.

Alpine Inn

Beatty Electric

Emily Childress - Train Collection

Chili's Restaurant

Coca Cola Inc.

Colonial House Restaurant

Dakota Middle School

Dakota Pride

First United Methodist Church

Fort Hays Chuckwagon

Ice House
Jon Crane Gallery

Knecht Home Center

Knollwood United Methodist Church

MP3. the band

McCaskell Construction

Millstone Restaurant

Modern Woodmen of America

Northwest Pipe

Pauly's Subs

Perkins Restaurant

Piece of Cake

RCCHS Learn and Serve Program

Robbinsdale Lounge

Servall Uniform and Linen Supply

Shamrock Landscaping

Shovelhead Construction

Skyline Engineering

Sharlyn Swenson - Antique Quilt

Taco John's

TREA

Unique Signs

Thank you to everyone who donated food, pies, and items for our silent auction and dinner.

Thank you to to the members of the Class of '77 for their generous cash donations.

Thank you to Paul Smith and Brett Sutton for providing our reunion dinner.

Thank you to the Habitat staff for their guidance and patience.

Thank you to the planning committee for their hard work and

unshakeable faith in the project.

Pam Beshara

Dawn and Jim Christensen

Rich and Tonya Copeland

Dan Doney

Tina Freeman

Jim and Becky Fleming

Suzy Ganje

Julie Glasford
Chris Groves and Tammy Norman

Sue Jarvis

Gena Karen

Donna Maloney

Scott and Sharla McCaskell

Rich Palmer

Donna and Ed Savage

Rod and Dona Schroeder

Paul Smith

Jody Speck

Brett Sutton

Todd Wicks

Mike Wolff

Jim Wood

The Family

Our reunion is tomorrow. Already. Wow. We are going to get to see some old friends. But tomorrow we are also going to make some new ones. Because tomorrow we are going to meet the family who will be living in the house the Cobblers will build. For those of you who can't be here, I'd like to tell you her story. She gave me permission to share online, but I will not use her name. This is the internet, after all.

Our recipient is a single mom with 5 children. The oldest is a nine year old boy. The youngest is a little eight month old girl. There are three more girls in between, ages 3, 5, and 8.

She grew up in another part of South Dakota in a 1.5 bedroom home with no running water or electricity and walked to an outhouse that was a quarter mile away from her house. She has lived in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Hawaii before settling here in Rapid City. She has known about Habitat since she was a little girl, and she has volunteered for Habitat in the past.

She graduated from high school in 2000 and then spent the next nine years trying to get through college. During her college years she worked full time and was a single mother. She is currently divorced, but during her marriage she was the primary supporter of her family. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work in 2009.

Now, she works for Rural American Initiatives Early Head Start. Her primary title is "Health Advocate", but she plays many roles. Her responsibilities include prenatal services, administrative assistant, and safety director. She really is the "face" of the program.

On June 27, 2011 she and her five children became homeless. One year later, on June 27, 2012 she received a call from Habitat saying that she would be the Project 77 Blitz Build homeowner! That same day she took all of her kids to Menards to pick out paint for their bedrooms. Each one picked out FOUR colors. This will be their first room without white walls. While the kids are excited about being able to paint their rooms, she is anxious to be able to decorate her home with family quilts, pictures, and drawings that her children have made.

This hard working woman will be joining us for dinner on Friday, and will spend a couple of days helping us build her house next week. I hope the house we build will serve her well. She is raising 5 future Cobblers!