ELKTON, Md. — Breaking ground on what will be her family’s first house, Felicia Hanna knows she will have to work hard to make it happen.
“250 hours can seem overwhelming,” said Hanna, “Of course, when they laid out a paper and said, ‘Here, you have 250 hours that you have to do’, and I work two different jobs and I have three children, I just have to find time to fit it into my busy schedule, because I know it’s going to be worth it at the end.”
Fortunately, the timeline for the project on Manor Road in Elkton has already been cut short.
Long before today’s groundbreaking, Felicia’s new home has already taken shape here on the grounds of the Cecil County School of Technology.
Students have put together much of the structure as part of their vocational training.
“They were totally excited when we finally said, ‘We have a family. We know where the house is going. It’s going to be moved, and I’m sure that we will have some students that come help,”said CCST Principal Nicole Parr.
Help also will come from Devon and Julie Price, a pair of Habitat’s new core volunteers.
It’s the same couple, which donated a 79-foot Norway spruce for the Christmas lighting at New York City’s Rockefeller Center a few years ago, and that gift will keep on giving in Felicia’s home.
“Every Rockefeller Center Christmas tree ends up in a Habitat for Humanity house somewhere,”said Devon, “and one of the stipulations that Julie and I had when the tree was taken was that the lumber would come back to some place local.”
A piece of history, which will now be rooted in a first-time home making yet another American Dream come true.
“When I applied for Habitat that I actually saw online, I never thought in a million years that I would have been picked for it. Ever,” said Hanna, “So it is like the lottery. I want to say I’m super excited, but at the same time, like, ‘Is this a dream? Is this true?’”
