Two Home Dedications Make For One Very Special Day

This past Saturday, two new Habitat homes and homeowners were celebrated in the Crystal and Shakopee communities. The Sonmez family of four and Kennedy family of five each were each welcomed into their new neighborhoods, and congratulated by the sponsors and volunteers that made their dreams of becoming homeowners come true.

The Families

Before moving into their new Habitat home in Shakopee, the Sonmez family was living in a cramped one-bedroom apartment. Since applying to Habitat, and being accepted into Habitat's homeownership program, both Kuvvet and Nadire have attended numerous homeowner training sessions, and together have logged 400 hours of sweat equity, helping to build and rehab Habitat homes, and volunteering at the Twin Cities ReStore. Kuvvet says their new house in Shakopee "already feels like home", and he is looking forward to the nice neighborhood and good schools for his children.

Farrah Kennedy applied for Habitat homeownership in December of 2012, and is looking forward to raising her four children in their new home in Crystal. Farrah grew up in Minnesota, but has lived all over the United States. She works full time in the Minnesota National Guard and several of her Guard unit members helped work on her home. She is excited to have a permanent place to now call home. She's even looking forward to landscaping her backyard (... although that will have to wait until the spring!). 

The Home Dedications

During the Sonmez's Home Dedication in Shakopee, Mark Turbak from Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, started the program by thanking everyone in attendance for being "architects of hope", as they helped to provide the Sonmez family with their new home. The CEO of Prime Therapeutics, Eric Elliott, described the love Prime Therapeutics, donors, volunteers, and Kuvvet put into building this house. Kuvvet then made a special thank you to Craig Norton, the site supervisor, and Patrick Schroeder, the AmeriCorps construction facilitator, both of whom he said made sure he was building his home correctly. He also reflected on the many memories he made on site with the volunteers and expressed his sincere gratitude to everyone who helped create his home:

"It would have been impossible for me to buy a home for my family without Habitat."

At the Crystal dedication, over 75 people gathered in Farrah’s new Habitat home to congratulate and welcome her family to the community. Farrah told the story of working in the National Guard, being a single mother of four children, and overcoming odds to purchase a Habitat home for her family.

Many of the people in attendance were Habitat volunteers that worked alongside Farrah on her house as she put in her "sweat equity" hours. It was quite apparent that Farrah has made a deep and lasting impression on everyone she has worked with on Habitat build sites. Her home, sponsored by Thrivent Financial, will give her and her four children the stability and consistency that they have never had. Former board member for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Tom Naughtin, expressed that this was the most inspiring and largest dedication that he has ever witnessed. As a token of her gratitude, Farrah gave out many crafted gifts to her family, friends, co-workers, and church volunteers to show her appreciation of their support through this process.