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Building Homes - Building Hope |
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| "A World where everyone has a decent place to live" | ||||||
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What's NewOil Springs Build 20062006-07-23 A Day of Celebration and Thanks So many volunteers and supporters contributed to the building of this 11th Habitat for Humanity Sarnia/Lambton house in Oil Springs that Theresa, Roy, Jacob and Spencer Tessier will now make their home.
A cooperative of Petrolia area churches comprised of 7 different denominations, 15 parishes and 26 congregations was the major sponsor of this build which was spearheaded by Mark Perry of the Oil City/Oil Springs Pastoral Charge. Their commitment was originally for $22,400 however with the many events these creative people organized, over $32,000 has been raised to-date with $4,000 in pledges yet to come! This money raised goes straight to the building of the Tessier house as the land was so generously donated by Jean Ann Dunlop and Juliette McDonald.
During 11 Saturday blitzes there were 125 individuals who came out to help, many of them multiple times. Over 100 were from sponsoring churches, and the remainder were from the Habitat database. Theresa's parents and sisters were at almost every blitz, having travelled from Leamington and Kitchener each time. Mary Lee Apps and Joy Smith were the volunteers who made hundreds of phone calls to the Saturday blitz volunteers, and threw in extra names if we came up short. There were an average of 10 volunteers per blitz preparing the lunches and snacks for the building volunteers. Add to this the volunteers who were on site during the week, many times until late into the evening and you have an incredible total of approzimately 650 volunteer days of work, which is now called the Tessier house.
The build could not have been completed without the support and involvement of over 50 corporate and local firms and trade unions. Not only did they generously contribute their materials, but the individuals within these firms and trade unions brought the skill and expertise that allowed us to get it right and pass all the home inspections! Hank Joosse, John Groendyk, Grant Kersey and Randy Shortt were the volunteer building leaders who have dedicated the last 3 months of their lives to this project. Their dedication, expertise and care are obvious to all who see the Tessier house.
The dedication of this wonderful collaboration took place on Sunday, July 23, 2006. It was a beautiful sunny day as members of Habitat for Hunanity Sarnia/Lambton, the Oil Springs community and county officials wished Theresa and her children well as they settle in to their new house. As he presented Theresa with a tool box, Hank Joosse said "Congratulations Theresa, you are now a mortgage holder; welcome to the world of home maintenance!" And if you've ever met Theresa you know she will embrace it whole-heartedly. CHURCH SPONSORS LOCAL DONORS CORPORATE DONORS THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! |
