By Tyler Marr

Habitat for Humanity helps sixth family in Duck Lake

Jan 23, 2018 | 9:00 AM

A “tear jerker” was how Jan Thomas described the ceremony handing over a brand-new home to a Duck Lake family Monday.

Thomas, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Prince Albert, said this was the sixth family the agency has assisted in the community.

“Kristina and her three children were standing in front of us with tears running down her face,” Thomas said. “She grew up here and was living with her mom right next door [to the new house] … she knows this will be her forever home.”

The home, built in partnership with the Willow Cree Healing Lodge, will mark the end of the two groups’ successful partnership in Duck Lake, according to Thomas.

The lodge, located on the Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation, is a federal correctional facility that helps heal and rehabilitate Indigenous offenders. Thomas said more than 80 men from the facility have assisted in building homes in Duck Lake during the five-year partnership.

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“Those gentlemen are the ones who lift the hammers and put these houses up,” she said. “[The inmates] are involved in gaining specialized work experience they can take back into their own lives when they are released.”

The home for Kristina and her children is approximately 1,200 square feet, Thomas said. It has five bedrooms, an open-concept living and dining room and a partially finished basement, allowing an opportunity for the family to perform their own upgrades down the road.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr