Roanoke – It wouldn’t be a wall raising without an ample number of heartfelt thank you’s.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” Madina Musa told the small group assembled on the sidewalk on this humid July morning.
For 25-year-old Madina Musa, who will move into this house in a few months, the thank you’s are as genuine as they can get.
She has been working through the Habitat program, volunteering on other people’s homes, just as she is assisting in the construction of this one. She has lived in Roanoke since she was two-years-old, after her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya. She graduated from Patrick Henry High School and has moved up the ranks at Wal-Mart, where she started as a cashier. She is now in charge of the store’s in-house human resources at Valley View.
“I’m so excited my heart is beating. I keep smiling. I’m so happy to be here with everyone. I’m just so so so excited.,” Musa said
Madina is just the kind of person Habitat is looking for.
“I love the mission of Habitat of providing affordable housing to working-class Americans. Low to moderate income people who work really hard and with housing prices and interest rates soaring having, a nonprofit organization like Habitat be able to close that gap, Betty Jean Wolfe, , said.
And so this morning a ceremonial wall raising.
Habitat staff and volunteers, generous sponsors and WSLS-10 staff all with a small heave to kick start Madina’s house.
“It is just critically important to stabilize our neighborhoods and bringing in people who want to be homeowners responsible citizens. To invest in the city, because the strength of the city is the strength of the region,” Wolfe said.
“I want to say thank you to them every single one of them. Especially you guys I want to thank them for coming out in the heat in this rain. I just want to say thank you. I don’t know what else to say but thank you. Me and my daughter are going to appreciate everything that they are doing for us today.” Musa said.