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Habitat for Humanity home is more than walls to single mom

More than 600 volunteers give family of five a new start

Habitat for Humanity volunteers, staff and sponsors celebrate with Patrice Tonge on Friday, Nov. 20, when Tonge was given the keys to her new home. "I am most thankful for my family, my community, the willingness of people to give, to give of themselves to help someone else," said the single mother of four young boys. Contributed photo

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer 5:59 PM Wednesday, November 25, 2009

ENGLEWOOD — Her new house is not the first thing Patrice Tonge mentions when asked what she is thankful for.

It’s the process that built the house on Ashokan Street in the Morgan Place neighborhood.

“I am most thankful for my family, my community, the willingness of people to give, to give of themselves to help someone else,” said the single mother of four young boys. “It encourages me to help someone else.”

Tonge was presented the keys to her house Friday, Nov. 20. Her new home was packed with Habitat for Humanity volunteers, staff and sponsors. More than 600 volunteers worked 1,900 hours for eight weeks to build the four-bedroom, 1½-bath home.

Tonge was not given the home. She put in 275 hours of sweat equity in Habitat projects, worked with Habitat to repair her credit history and learned to manager her money, and now has a 20-year affordable mortgage held by Habitat.

Though she has a full-time job at Miami Valley Hospital as a patient access representative, “Without Habitat, none of this would have been possible. It’s a wonderful opportunity,” she said in September when volunteers first showed up to begin construction.

Friday, her four sons were sprawled on the carpet.

“It’s great,” 9-year-old Niji said of his family’s first home. When asked where the Christmas tree would be, Niji and his three brothers —Judah, 2, Demani, 4, and Siyah, 6 — all whooped and pointed to the corner of the living room. The boys relished the soft warmth of the new carpet. All were stocking-footed because Patrice has begun to train them to take off their shoes at the door to keep their new home clean.

Many of the volunteers were Walmart employees, working their own time. The company donated the needed $75,000 for building materials, according to Matt O’Halloran, Walmart market manager for the Greater Dayton area. Walmart has invested $10.5 million in Habitat houses in Ohio this year, he said.

“We wanted to get this done before Thanksgiving for Patrice and her family,” O’Halloran said.

The family will start moving in next week and begin to empty the final boxes on Thanksgiving Day before going to an aunt’s house for the traditional family gathering.

“Everybody in the family will be here for Christmas though,” Patrice said standing in a back bedroom.

The interview was interrupted by unhappy shrieks from the living room, courtesy of Judah.

“Well, there’s the first tantrum in the new house,” she smiled. Now, it’s officially our home.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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