| Habitat for
Humanity recipient Titeana McNeil, 11, plays with a caulk gun while Habitat
volunteers Ted Paquette and Manny Cunard, site supervisor and director of
Auxiliary Operations and Campus Services work on the family's new kitchen.
Below, mother Jennifer McNeil and her children, Jamarea, 3; Tyquan, 14;
Titeana, 11; and Taquana, 15 stop by their future home to check the progress
on Oct. 13. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett) |
|
 Jennifer
McNeil had no idea that watching television would one day help her own a
home. But, thanks to that and a partnership between Wesleyan University and
Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity, Inc. (NMHFH) – a local affiliate
for Habitat for Humanity International – McNeil, a single mother of five, is
a first time homeowner.
In McNeil’s mind, home ownership had always seemed like a dream. But then,
one night last summer, she was watching TV when she saw a commercial for
Habitat for Humanity. It got McNeil thinking, and soon after she contacted
the local Habitat office. She learned how she could apply to become a
homeowner. She filled out an application and in October was notified she and
her family homeowners of a home on 34 Fairfield Avenue – a home that
had been donated by Wesleyan to Northern Middlesex Habitat for Humanity.
“I read the first sentence of the letter and started jumping up and down and
running around with my kids!” shouts McNeil.
The four bedroom, light grey colonial, located along the edge of Wesleyan’s
campus had been refurbished by Habit for Humanity volunteers.
McNeil admits she is pleased that their new home is near Wesleyan.
“There is always something going on," she says. “After school programs,
events, and there are very friendly people here.”
It turns out many of them are pretty good with construction tools, too.
Many of the volunteers who worked on the house were Wesleyan faculty, staff
and student volunteers from Wesleyan’s Habitat for Humanity student chapter,
WesShelter.
“During the past year, over 250 students, faculty and staff have given of
their time and energy along with a countless number of community
volunteers,” says Manny Cunard, director of auxiliary operations and campus
services and site supervisor for the Wesleyan-Habitat for Humanity
partnership “We have created connections with the Middletown community that
will serve to enhance the important relationship between Middletown and
Wesleyan."
McNeil and her children also helped work on their house-to-be every Saturday
morning. Currently, the house is receiving its finishing touches and the
family is set to move in before Thanksgiving.
“I’m having a lot of my family here for Thanksgiving,” says McNeil. “I want
to cook five turkeys in my new kitchen! I never thought anything like this
could happen to me in a million years.”
McNeil, a department manager at Wal-Mart in Wallingford who grew up in the
Long River Village Projects in Middletown, is looking forward to improving
her family life by owning her own home. She and her children, ages 18, 15,
14, 11 and 3 have been living at her sister’s Middletown home for the past
two years.
“This is definitely going to bring my kids and I closer, just knowing that
we now own a home.
On Sunday, Nov. 13 Wesleyan University and NMHFH will host a welcoming and
celebratory event for the McNeil family at 34 Fairview Avenue in Middletown.
Recently, Wesleyan donated a second house at 15 Hubert Street to Northern
Middlesex Habitat for Humanity. A groundbreaking is set for Hubert Street
later this fall and applications to select a family are currently under
review.
In June, 2006, Wesleyan expects to participate in a national Habitat
“blitz-build,” in which an entire house is erected and made livable in seven
days. This house will be one of 1,000 built simultaneously around the
country. |
