House a Blessing for Monticello Veteran

Flood-damaged home replaced through volunteer donations of time and money

 Six Monticello churches, coordinated by Disaster Assistance for Northwest Indiana (DANI), are completing a new home for a disabled veteran. A House Blessing for the home at 710 Bluewater Drive in Monticello will be held on Sunday, June 7 at 2:00 pm. The public is welcome to attend.

Carl Reid owns the new home and will live there with his grandson. “If it weren’t for DANI and these churches, I don’t know what I would have done. God’s been good to me,” said Reid. Reid is a Vietnam era veteran who is mostly confined to a wheelchair. The new home has been elevated from the previous level and is completely handicapped accessible. Reid was recently released from the hospital after an extended bout with pneumonia.

The new home replaces one badly damaged by the January 2008 flooding. The old home was torn down at the end of April. The new structure has taken less than a month to complete, mostly using volunteer labor. The six Monticello churches participating are the Christian, United Methodist, First Baptist, LifeSong, New Hope Lutheran, and First Presbyterian. The construction crews were supervised by Jess Vandergraff, construction coordinator for DANI and an employee of Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette.

In addition to the six churches, two other groups contributed important time to the project. Twin Lakes Building Trades Technology program, under the guidance of teacher Scott Billings helped with the unloading of the materials for the new home and spent three days helping with framing and drywall installation. A volunteer group through the United Methodist Church in Altoona, PA spent a week working on various stages of the house construction. The Altoona group also worked on two other DANI projects in the area while they were here.

Reid’s new home was financed by DANI through its Nehemiah Partner’s program. The program allows for every local dollar raised to be matched by three dollars from a grant from the Indiana Natural Disaster Fund. Donations toward this house are still being accepted.

Several other flood recovery projects are underway in the area under DANI’s supervision. Potential volunteers can arrange to work by leaving a message at 877-773-0249 (toll-free) or sending email to director@danifloood.org . Donations toward the remaining flood recovery work are also welcome. Additional information is available at the DANI website, http://daniflood.org .

What is DANI?

Disaster Assistance for Northwest Indiana is the long-term recovery agency that is a coalition of more than 30 local faith- and community-based organizations who have joined to help the survivors of the record flooding in January and February 2008. DANI’s efforts are focused on Benton, Carroll, Cass, Fulton, Jasper, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, and White Counties. To date, nearly 120 cases have been closed out of more than 160 clients, and more than $850,000 in donated money and labor has been expended toward the flood recovery effort in these counties. For more information, visit daniflood.org .