One family’s gratitude

Posted

Mindi LaRose, KP News

The Hancock family celebrates after they are handed the keys to their new home: Left to right, Ryan, David, Brandon and mom, Becki. Photo by Mindi LaRose

If you’ve ever wondered how Habitat for Humanity affects children’s lives, wonder no more.  In a brilliant move by an innovative mom, Becki Hancock summoned and documented the thoughts of her children as they prepared to move into their new Habitat home in the Palmer Lake neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity partners with low-income families to help them build their own homes and make a better future for themselves.

At the July 9 dedication and celebration ceremony of the Becki Hancock Family Home built by Habitat for Humanity, the guests in attendance became privy to the thoughts of her three young boys. As the story was told by Bob Delaney of Habitat’s Volunteer Committee, the Rotary Club was to pay a visit to the home, and mom Becki wanted to leave a token of her family’s thanks to the club and to all volunteers who helped build her beautiful new 1,050-square-foot home. She asked her three sons, twins Brandon and Ryan (14) and her youngest, David (12), a series of questions, and documented their candid answers.

The touching “Thank You” card was read at the dedication, and is printed here by permission of its authors. It speaks from the hearts of children of the deep effects of having a home to call your own, volunteering, and even offers some comic relief from 12-year-old David (see David’s last entry below.)

In Becki Hancock’s closing words of the “Thank You” card, she says it best when she says, in essence, that volunteers are “the best humankind can offer.”

 

‘Thank you!’

By the Hancock Family

Becki: “Thank you for what?”

Brandon: “For our new home.”

Becki: “What does a home mean to you?”

Ryan: “A home is where you don’t have to move so you get to play with your friends for a long time.”

David: “A home is where you get to stay in the same school every year. When you don’t always have to start over, you can get better grades, go to college, and get a ‘really good’ job.”

Brandon: “A home makes you feel safe and then you can be happy.”

Becki: “Thank you to whom?”

Ryan: “You know, the volunteers.”

Becki: “What do the volunteers mean to you?”

Brandon: “A volunteer cares about you even if you’re a stranger.”

David: “They give you time out of their real lives.”

Ryan: “A volunteer makes you feel like a friend.”

Brandon: “A volunteer is funny and makes you laugh a lot.”

David: “A volunteer is what we want to be when we are old or have someone else to pay our bills so we don’t have to work and have time to be one.”

All: “Thank you for helping us have our home and a better life!” “Thank you for showing my children the best humankind can offer, teaching them to dream, and allowing them to believe in a future they hadn’t known existed before.” –Becki Hancock[/box]


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