Loudoun Habitat for Humanity celebrated the completion of two new St. Louis homes Saturday and got a significant financial commitment to get started on another. Dozens of volunteers, sponsoring businesses, church leaders and county Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) gathered at St. Louis Elementary School Saturday morning to dedicate the Bernard Lane homes and turn the keys over to their new residents. With crews of volunteers working mostly on weekends, Habitat finished the homes in just over six months. Occupancy permits were issued Friday and on Saturday both homes were certified as meeting energy efficient green standards.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans provided 75 percent of the funding for the new home of Jose and Mirna Mejia. As part of its overall commitment to help built 300 houses per year for three years, the organization announced that it would repeat that level of support for the next home Habitat will build in the small subdivision, where a third house will be dedicated in January. "It is miraculous that in about six months you have built a neighborhood here," said Michael Zapf, president of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' Dulles Chapter.
Loudoun Habitat President Stanley "Bud" Green repeatedly was lauded for his leadership in the project, but he gave credit to the volunteers and house leaders. "This is like a family," Green said. Burton said the St. Louis project was a broad-based community effort that should be a model for other initiatives. "This is such a fantastic program," he said. Those in attendance helped Pastor Joel Guttormson of New Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Lovettsville and the Rev. Mike Emerson of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg read the Litany of Blessing on the homes. Also during the ceremony the new homeowners, the Mejia family and Theresa Rick, also were presented with Bibles and other gifts along with the keys to the houses.
Source: Leesburg Today