Shirley Cole thanks volunteers at the dedication of her new home.

On Saturday, August 18, some remarkable people came together to celebrate a remarkable achievement. This summer, the members of Blessed Sacrament Church of South Charleston sponsored and built a Habitat for Humanity home for Shirley Cole. It is Habitat's 108th home overall and the 24th in Jubilee Heights. Blessed Sacrament has long been one of Habitat's strongest supporters and they certainly know how to put their faith into action.

Shirley has spent hundreds of hours working on the homes of other Habitat families and has attended many hours of homeowner education classes. Beginning on July 5, Shirley worked side by side with dozens of Blessed Sacrament volunteers to make her dream into a reality. Many parishoners are members of Habitat's regular volunteer crews. Charlie Stark, John Providenti, Mike Habenshuss, Ron Baehl, Jim Sapp, Bill Frame, Bob Galloway and Evan Cebula worked on this house in addition to their other Habitat work. David Lewis of Monarch Services Corporation provided his expertise on the house's electrical systems. Teens from Charleston Catholic High School , and churches in Pennsylvania and Illinois worked together and learned the value of cooperation and service

Father Jim O'Conner of Blessed Sacrament guided and inspired the workers and proved he is pretty handy with a hammer. Mike McCready and Joan Garton spent many, many hours planning and building this wonderful home. Special thanks go out to them.

Habitat for Humanity is deeply thankful to have such a committed partner as Blessed Sacrament. The people mentioned here played an important role in this effort, but many others also worked and sweated to get the house built. The community, young and old, blended their efforts to change the life of one of their neighbors. It truly was a remarkable effort accomplished by remarkable people.