From left, Bruce and Kim Simmons receive the keys to their new home from VGCC Carpentry program head Keith Tunstall, as dedication ceremony attendees applaud. (VGCC photo)
After more than a year of construction work, primarily by students in the Carpentry program at Vance-Granville Community College, a new home was dedicated on Jan. 13 in Oxford by Granville County Habitat for Humanity.
Officials from VGCC joined Habitat volunteers and community leaders at a ceremony to celebrate their successful partnership and to officially welcome Bruce and Kim Simmons and their children to their new home on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue (formerly Linden Avenue).
In a first for VGCC, Carpentry students built the house as part of their course work on weekdays. Local volunteers helped out on the weekends or when classes were not in session. The students were supervised by VGCC Carpentry program head Keith Tunstall, who is also a Granville County Habitat for Humanity board member. Ten students worked on the house at various times. Two of the students, Robyn Horner of Durham and Mycal Elam of Warrenton, were on hand for the dedication ceremony. According to Tunstall, his program will continue to partner with Habitat for Humanity and his students are looking forward to starting another house soon. The Carpentry program is part of VGCC’s chapter of SkillsUSA alongside other programs in the college’s Business and Applied Technologies division. The national organization promotes opportunities for community service while developing a skilled workforce.
The Habitat project began with a ceremonial groundbreaking on Oct. 21, 2014, was delayed several times by inclement weather, and continued through December of 2015.
Posing in front of the newly dedicated home are, in front, from left, Zelodis Jay, chairman of the Granville County Board of Commissioners; Calvin “CJ” Harris, mayor pro tem of Oxford; Kim Simmons; Ruby Powell Greene; Bruce Simmons; and Granville County Habitat for Humanity board member Bonn Williams; on second row, from left, Habitat board member Gloria Boone, Habitat executive director Julie Booth and Habitat board president Cheryl Hart; and in back, from left, VGCC President Dr. Stelfanie Williams and Carpentry program head Keith Tunstall. (VGCC photo)
Speaking at the dedication ceremony, the president of VGCC, Dr. Stelfanie Williams, said the occasion reminded her of two lines from The Wizard of Oz: “There’s no place like home,” and “Everything you were looking for was right there with you all along.” She explained that this community collaboration demonstrated “that everything we need is right here: our Carpentry instructor, Keith Tunstall, and our students, who learned and worked right here, the local people and companies who came together and made donations to support the project, the leadership from Habitat for Humanity and Mrs. Ruby Powell Greene, who donated the land on which the home was built. As a college, we are grateful that our students had this service-learning opportunity.”
Also speaking during the program were Julie Booth, the new executive director of Granville County Habitat for Humanity; Cheryl Hart, president of the board of directors of Granville County Habitat for Humanity; board members Bob Williams, Gloria Boone and Bonn Williams; Calvin “CJ” Harris, mayor pro tem of Oxford; Zelodis Jay, chairman of the Granville County Board of Commissioners; Ruby Powell Greene of Raleigh; Cindy Bostic, an advisory board member for the State Employees’ Credit Union branch in Oxford; and Patricia Tabourn of Mt. Zion United Holy Church of Oxford.
Other partners involved in the project included Lowe’s Home Improvement of Henderson; CertainTeed; State Employees’ Credit Union; Robert B. Lloyd Plumbing; Brummitt Electric; Greystone Concrete Products; Brummitt Heating and Cooling; Carolina Sunrock; and the Simmons family themselves, who contributed “sweat equity.”
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian ministry founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. The Granville County organization is one of more than 1,500 local affiliates in the United States. Habitat has helped to build or repair more than 800,000 houses and served more than four million people worldwide.
The 1,102-square-foot Oxford house with vinyl siding contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms, along with a storage room in the back. Tunstall had the honor of handing over the keys to the home to the Simmons family before attendees took a tour. “I never thought I’d ever be a homeowner,” Kim Simmons said. “I thank you all from the depths of my heart.”
For more information on volunteering with Granville County Habitat for Humanity, call (919) 693-5694.
For more information on VGCC’s Carpentry program, call Keith Tunstall at (252) 738-3261 or (252) 213-1266.