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more photosThe Rev. Jack Kiekel, left, from Sunriver Christian Fellowship, wraps a prayer shawl around Haley King, 8, her mom Carla, 45, her sister Nicole, 6, and her dad James, 45, during a dedication ceremony for the Kings’ new home in La Pine on Sunday. Newberry Habitat for Humanity built the home for the family.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
A place to call home
“Six years ago I began to pray for a home. My prayers have been answered.” — Carla King, of La Pine, on the home Habitat for Humanity built for her family
By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin
Published: November 16. 2009 4:00AM PSTLA PINE —
On Sunday, the King family came home.
After years of bouncing from one place to the next, James and Carla King and their daughters, 8-year-old Haley and 6-year-old Nicole, took the keys to a completed Habitat for Humanity home tucked away off of Burgess Road in La Pine, and unlocked the door to a place they plan to call home for a long time.
“It’s so nice,” Carla King, 45, said. “We’ve lived in a lot of homes.”
The family took ownership of the house Sunday as part of a dedication ceremony put on by Newberry Habitat for Humanity, which built the home for the Kings.
Newberry Habitat for Humanity is a south county affiliate of the international housing nonprofit.
Volunteers and donations provide the material, funds and labor needed to build Habitat homes, and families selected to live in the homes put in work on their homes and other Habitat houses.
About 100 people attended Sunday’s dedication ceremony, including volunteers who helped build the home. After an opening prayer, awards were handed out.
Mountain View Heating was awarded Habitat for Humanity’s highest honor, The Order of the Hammer. For the past seven years, Executive Director Randy Heise said, the company has donated heaters and installed them free of charge in the program’s new homes.
It was a true housewarming: The Kings received gifts to help fill out their new three-bedroom home, including three quilts for their beds, a photo album to record life in their new home and a prayer shawl.
Then it was time for the Kings to say a few words.
“Thank you for letting me paint my room purple,” Nicole said, to loud cheers.
“Six years ago I began to pray for a home,” Carla King said, tearing up. “My prayers have been answered. I thank you for seeing our need and choosing us. ... We love you all.”
Finally, the Kings stepped onto their porch and took the house keys from Audrey Allen, the construction manager on the project.
James King turned the key and the lock clicked, and the family headed inside, followed by dozens who wanted to check out their handiwork.
The new home, on Medill Court, at the north end of La Pine, is the first house built by the Newberry Habitat for Humanity that used green building techniques. Even the leftover wood from the building went to La Pine residents, who will use it to heat their homes this winter.
Once completed, the Newberry Woods community will have 11 homes. It’s the first Habitat Village in the area, and Newberry Habitat for Humanity is hoping to acquire more property in La Pine where it can build more homes.
In 2010, the group hopes to build two or three homes, and to construct as many as 23 new homes in La Pine over the next few years.
Perhaps some of the families who will benefit from those homes will stumble upon Newberry Habitat for Humanity, as Carla King did. She was at the library when she saw an advertisement for Habitat for Humanity.
“I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I took an application, and two weeks later we were accepted. ... Everything just worked out.”
Now the Kings are ready to start life in their new home.
“A year or a year and a half is the longest we’ve lived in one place,” Carla King said as well-wishers filed through her home to check out the finished product and congratulate her.
“I just don’t know what to say.”
Sheila G. Miller
can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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