OXFORD – As Chenango County Habitat for Humanity (CCHH) is in the midst of the 16th annual Red Carnation Sale, Jan. 4-24, they are also embarking on the selection process of choosing their fifth partnering family and build location. This formidable decision made the committee reflect on CCHH's whole reason for being as they remembered their first building project in Bainbridge years ago, and how it vastly changed the lives of a special family.
What is the point of Habitat, you may ask? You may be familiar with their tagline, to help families who “need a hand up rather than a hand out", but you may not know the full extent of what they do. Their mission is to eliminate poverty housing and revitalize communities. The interest free house loan is terrific too, but there’s something else that happens that can’t be promised and it isn’t exactly tangible.
With the partnering family’s invested time, the house provides a sense of pride in homeownership, it nurtures the family’s self-esteem, and helps provide stability. The house becomes a home. CCHH’s first family, Joan Di Chiara and her two children, William (now 25) and Bobbie Randel (24) can attest to that.
Joan and her kids got word that they were Habitat’s chosen family in Sept. of 1998. At the time, they were living in an apartment, and really needed a home. They were selected over three other applicants based on their level of need, willingness to partner, acceptance of responsibilities and ability to repay a no-interest mortgage.
At the start, Bobbie was 13 and William was almost 14; they both attended Bainbridge-Guilford school. It would be 2 ? years of hard work before the house would be finished, but this was time very well spent.
Joan described her involvement in the build as, “being on overtime!” Every Saturday she worked at the house even if it meant shoveling snow off the walks. She did what ever she could. Joan volunteered to sit at the Habitat table at the Chenango County Fair and she helped with the annual Red Carnation Fund Drive. It was 400 hours of sweat equity; one quarter of which was time that friends helped with. Friends brought friends and there were lots of good male role models over the build years too. This was especially good for the kids who didn’t have a father figure at home. There was also a great deal of publicity from all the area newspapers. William, who had been shy, said that he felt like “a famous person.” It was such good experience for all of them who seemed to blossom as the house developed.
This coming May it will be nine years since they started their home mortgage. “I’ll be half way through!” Joan proudly stated. With the help of Habitat this family got a home, but they also got stability. They were able to turn their lives around because they could devote more attention to jobs, education, health and happiness.
Joan’s been working for Mirabito’s in Sidney for six years now. She also writes a money saving column in The Tri-Town News called, “Tri-Town’s Own Stimulus Plan.”  William got a degree as a History major from St. Rose College in Albany and he’s currently teaching the GED Program for adults at BOCES. In high school, Bobbie was going to be a cosmetologist, but her plans changed. She’s been attending SUNY Cobleskill and (with just one semester left) will have her degree in Business Administration in May.
Looking back, Joan said of CCHH, “It’s a good organization; they’re very caring people! Whenever I needed help, they would be there for me.”
You never know what the future may bring, but the next Chenango County Habitat for Humanity house will change a family’s lives forever making dreams come true with decent, affordable housing. That’s the whole point.
Join CCHH as volunteer time, talents and resources are needed. You can also help by buying red carnations for “Sweetheart Day” from Jan. 4-24. For a link to the Red Carnation volunteers contact list, visit- http://habitat.chenango.org/carnation.html#participation or call Sandra Colton (607) 334-7492.