Tears traced a path down Nicole Benton’s cheeks as she helped raise up the first wall of the home that will soon belong to her. On Tuesday, Benton and her two children helped lift the wood frames for the first four walls of their future home in Lady Lake. It’s being built by The Villages Habitat for Humanity Club, which is affiliated with Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter. The Benton home is the club’s third house, and it will be the first house members finish in 2023. Sally Read, co-president of the club in The Villages, said the members do all the fundraising needed to build the homes. It costs $15,000 for the club to have exclusive rights to build each house. “We do constant fundraising, but it’s always worth it,” she said. “I’ll help raise whatever it takes to build homes for these families.”
Benton, who is a single mother of two, said she knew their lives would change the moment the walls started going up.
“It’s a lot of emotions,” she said. “You’re feeling so much at once. It’s a lot of gratitude. I’m thankful to Habitat and everyone who is helping us and helping make this happen.”
Read and other club members are ready to get the house’s construction going and are aiming for an April finish.
“It could change because of supply chains and other delays,” said Read, of the Village of Tall Trees. “But it’s nice for us to do houses this time of year because the weather is cooler. No one likes to do construction in intense heat.”
Click here to read the full article by Senior writer Maddie Cutler at the Villages Daily Sun.