Another New Habitat for Humanity House for a Deserving Family

By John Nolan

The best part about helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house is to be there when the family (the new homeowner) gets to see their finished home for the first time. The smiles on the faces of the parents, children and relatives are priceless.

The big day for incoming homeowner Alexis McKinney, her children, grandparents, and friends was Saturday, June 15, at her new house in Cincinnati's Bond Hill neighborhood. Folks from Habitat's Cincinnati staff, our Habitat affiliate the Eastside Coalition of Churches and St. Barnabas parishioners were on hand to join the celebration.

Alexis worked two jobs, put in her required "sweat equity" hours on the house and kept tabs on her four children (ages 11, 5, 3 and a 3-month-old) during the five months it took to get the house built. Habitat for Humanity requires a family's adults to each put in 250 hours of work on a house as a down payment, in order to receive a no-interest mortgage to buy the house.

Volunteers from St. Barnabas and the other eight Eastside churches are helping Habitat finish two nearby houses in Bond Hill before moving on to another, longer-term home construction project.

Photos help to tell a story. We are providing some for you.

Don't forget: The annual St. Barnabas benefit concert for Habitat, arranged and led by our talented organist-pianist Michael Chertock, is at our church on Sunday, July 7, at 3 p.m. Please join us if you are available.

Volunteers and new homeowners on the porch at the dedication of Habitat for Humanity's newly-finished home in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati.

The above photos show John Nolan presenting copies of the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go" to Alexis McKinney and her four children (ages 11, 5 and 3 years, and the youngest 3 months old) at her new Habitat for Humanity-built home . The bottom photo is of Alexis and her children, at the house's front steps. St. Barnabas parishioner Alycen Mansell donated the Dr. Seuss books, continuing Alycen's recent tradition of providing Dr. Seuss books to new owners of Habitat homes that St. Barnabas helped to build.