Quad City Times
Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Sheena Dooley

New Habitat home is dedicated

Story Photos

Photos by Nick Loomis/QUAD-CITY TIMES St. Ambrose University student and Habitat for Humanity volunteer Phil Reges, right, speaks to the crowd gathered at the dedication ceremony Saturday morning for a Habitat for Humanity home built for Seletha Wiggins and her family, left, in front of the home at 1026 Brown St., Davenport. During construction of the home, it was vandalized and robbed of several items, including the furnace. Ambrose students who helped with the house wore T-shirts that read “They can steal our furnace ... but they can’t steal our fire.”

Sabrina Wiggins, bottom right, holds her cousin Tyagia Wiggins during the dedication and open house Saturday of the Habitat for Humanity home built for Seletha Wiggins in Davenport.

For the Wiggins family, Christmas came early this year.

Seletha Wiggins and her five children will spend the holidays in the family’s first house, which was built through Habitat for Humanity Quad-Cities. For the first time, her kids will have their own bedrooms and a backyard to play in. They will leave behind the confines of a two-bedroom, roach-infested apartment.

“It feels like I can fly,” Wiggins said. “I never thought I’d see this day.”

Officials from Habitat for Humanity gathered Saturday with a small group of those involved in building the house to hand the keys over to the single mother, along with housewarming gifts and quilts for each family member. It also marked the first time Wiggins’ children, Larry, 13, Sabrina, 12, Shawn, 12, Shawntae, 12 and Shamera, 5, saw their new home.

“I love the house because now I have my own room,” Shawn Wiggins said. “We have a house to live in. We don’t have to stay in an apartment anymore.”

Habitat for Humanity was established in the Quad-Cities in 1993. During that time period, 43 houses have been constructed. The group selects its recipients based on their need, ability to make mortgage payments and willingness to volunteer time working for Habitat, said Kristi Crafton, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Quad-Cities.

Each adult must spend 250 hours working on their house or others. In exchange, the organization provides a new house at-cost along with a no interest mortgage. The average pricetag is about $60,000.

Wiggins applied about a year ago after hearing about Habitat for Humanity from hospice workers who were looking after her ailing mother. After being selected, Wiggins worked with the group on a house design, while picking out flooring and fabric for curtains. She spent almost every Saturday after breaking ground in August working with volunteers on the house.

The group’s efforts were set back throughout the building process, however, because of vandals who caused more than $6,000 worth of damage. Part of the driveway had to be torn up and redone after profanities were etched into the cement. Tools were stolen from a shed outside of the house and the furnace had to be replace after it was taken from the basement.

Crafton said it is the first time a Habitat house has been vandalized. Police never found who did it and the group is still waiting to hear from its insurance company to see whether it can recoup the losses. Wiggins had a security system installed, which has helped ease some of her fears about the vandals returning after her family moves in.

Meanwhile, Wiggins said she is just thankful for her new home.

“I don’t have much money in the bank,” Wiggins said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Habitat.”

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563)383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.