Home sweet home
AXIS member a proud owner of a new Habitat dwelling
by Jon Bauer
AXIS Healthcare member Ron
Thomas, a
quadriplegic, didn’t know what to expect when he attended a Twin
Cities Habitat for Humanity (TCHFH) meeting about accessible housing
for people with disabilities. “I saw an article in Access Press
that Habitat for Humanity was planning to build accessible housing
in Plymouth and that people interested could attend a meeting for more
information,” Thomas said.
Although Thomas and his
girlfriend, Tari Ricci were the only people who attended the meeting,
TCHFH encouraged them to apply for consideration. “Unfortunately
we were the only two people to attend the meeting,” Thomas said. “We
only attended the meeting to show support for the need for accessible
housing, but they encouraged us to apply and I’m glad we did.”
Thomas and Ricci were
selected as future homeowners and will soon be moving into a new
one-level, two-bedroom, accessible townhome in Plymouth. Construction
on the home began in August, 2007 and the TCHFH homebuilding process
generally takes 10 months to complete. “We
will probably be moving in at the end of June or early July,” Thomas
said.
Thomas and Ricci were
required to finish 300 hours of sweat equity before they could move
into their home. Habitat for Humanity requires that all new homeowners
put in a set amount of time. “100 hours
can be proxied out to other people,” Thomas said. “I completed
most of my hours by visiting the construction site, taking photos of
the progress and sending the pictures into Habitat for Humanity. They
were very accommodating about how we could complete our sweat equity
hours. Ricci and I even worked at the Habitat for Humanity office for
part of our hours.” Ricci also worked at the site throughout
the winter.
Volunteers from a number
of different organizations helped out with the building of the home. “I’m really grateful for all
the help from my friends, family and the volunteers at AXIS Healthcare
and other companies.” Thomas said. In addition to AXIS Healthcare,
volunteers from Wells Fargo, Boston Scientific, General Mills and
other companies and individuals worked on completion of the home.
“At the start of building, I was out at the site just about
every day,” Thomas said. “I enjoyed meeting all the
volunteers and I know it was important for them to see the person
who would be living in the home. Now, Tari and I try to make it out
to the site weekly to document the progress of our new home and to
meet the people working on it.”
Volunteers from AXIS Healthcare
helped out at the construction site on March 29th. “It was so much fun doing something outside of
work with all of my work friends,” said AXIS Healthcare Member
Services Coordinator Missy Bottila. “It just goes to show
you what wonderful people I work with. I was very proud! I would
love to organize a future project with people here at AXIS to do
another Habitat for Humanity project.” ![]()
AXIS Healthcare is a disability
care coordination organization founded in 1997 by Courage Center
and Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute as an innovative model
of care for people with disabilities. AXIS staff has extensive experience
working with people with physical disabilities and use this expertise,
and community relationships, to ensure that members get the right
care, at the right time, in the right place. More information about
AXIS Healthcare and the services available to individuals with disabilities
can be found at www.axishealth.com
