News

JANINE UNGVARSKY Times Leader Correspondent

EDWARDSVILLE -- There were children’s scrawls in chalk on the sidewalk and video games in the bedroom.

click image to enlarge

The Dante family on the steps of their new home in Edwardsville after the dedication by Wyoming Valley Habitat for Humanity on Sunday afternoon. Front row, from left, are Donnell, 4, Devon, 11, Devaeh, 4, and Leah, 4. Back row, from left, are owners Kristy and Donnell Dante.

BILL TARUTIS/For THE TIMES LEADER

click image to enlarge

Devon Dante, center, reacts to receiving the keys to his family’s new home from Habitat for Humanity Partner Family Mentor Robin Golden, left, as the rest of the family applauds Sunday.

BILL TARUTIS/For THE TIMES LEADER

Additional Photos Below

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

Family photos hung on the walls and a Halloween doormat greeted visitors. It looked like so many other family homes, but the Dante’s house was special — one of only 14 like it in all of Wyoming Valley.

On Sunday, the Dantes — mom Kristy, son Devon, 11, and twins Donnell and Deveah, 4 — officially became the latest local family to receive a Habitat for Humanity House. Built on a Plymouth Street lot where a double-block burned down in 2005, the 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom home took a year and hundreds of volunteers to make a reality, local Habitat Executive Director Karen Evans Kaufer said.

“It started with the families that owned the double block. They both had to agree to donate the land where this beautiful house now stands,” Kaufer said.

A core group of about 15 regular volunteers met every Wednesday, she said, and were joined by community groups every Saturday.

Several volunteers were recognized during the dedication ceremony, including John Johnson, a Habitat board member and volunteer.

“You are in this house — your sweat and sometimes your blood,” Johnson told the volunteers that crowded the Dante’s living room, kitchen and hallway and spilled out on to the front porch. “At the end of every project, I marvel that it was built by volunteers.”

Before the official ceremony, Dante said she was nervous. But the nervousness changed to a beaming smile as she talked about the volunteers.

“They were just the best,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what they did. They were here when it was freezing and when it was 90 degrees out, and they’d be out there putting on a roof. One of them even built these shelves for us,” she said, pointing out built-in shelves in the living room.”

Like all Habitat homeowners, Dante said she went through an intensive screening process and she and her oldest son put in more than 300 hours of sweat equity.

“I liked painting,” Devon said, and when asked what he thought of his new home, he just smiled.

Dante greeted dozens of volunteers, family and friends who showed up for the occasion, which included a blessing of the home and the official presentation of the keys. It’s a scene that’s played out 13 times since the local chapter began in 1992.

Kaufer said families must be county residents for at least a year, must be first-time homeowners and must meet income requirements. Besides the sweat equity requirement, new Habitat homeowners have a $55,000, 20-year mortgage. The next project is a former doctor’s office on Stanton Street that will be converted into a single-family home for a larger family, Kaufer said.

Dante said the mortgage is cheaper than what she was paying in rent, but her new home means so much more than that. “It’s better, it’s nicer and it’s safer than where we were living,” she said. But more than that, she said, what means the most is how it came to be. “This,” she said, gesturing around at her new living room, “reminds you of how good people are, how nice they are and how much they all care.”

About Habitat

Today is World Habitat Day.

Habitat for Humanity was established in 1976. More than 225,000 homes have been built in 3,000 countries housing 1 million people

To date, the Wyoming Valley chapter has built 14 homes housing about 75 people.

The Wyoming Valley Habitat for Humanity runs ReStore, a building materials recycling store, in Nanticoke. Proceeds support the local chapter’s mission to provide decent, simple homes for families in need.

Volunteers, donations and building sites are always needed

For more information, call 570-820-8002.