Locally, professional home builders working on five of the McKinney houses include Darling Homes, Drees Custom Homes, K Hovnanian Homes, Mercedes Homes, and Paul Billingsly Builders & Realtors. The sixth home will be built by volunteers from Stonebridge United Methodist Church.

Other partners with the North Collin County Habitat include the city of McKinney, the McKinney Community Development Corporation, and D.R. Horton Homes.

Stonebridge UMC coincidentally is building a home for one of its congregants, Christine Kunclrs, who has lived in McKinney for 20 years. She has 6-year-old twin sons, Chase and Preston. Chase has cerebral palsy and mental retardation, so the volunteers with the church have worked with both Kunclrs and NCC Habitat to design her home to fit American Disabilities Act standards.

Though residences are not required to meet those standards, Stonebridge UMC wanted the Kunclrs' to feel comfortable in their new home.

“We're doing something really special with this house, both out of necessity and good will,” said George Cooley, a member of the church who is using his professional experience in the home-building industry to supervise work on the Kunclrs' home. “It's a bit of a challenge, but we're getting it done.”

Stonebridge UMC has partnered with Habitat on four other homes. Working with habitat is part of the church's active missions program.

“There's a need right here in McKinney, Texas, and we think (Habitat) is a good program that helps people right here in our backyards, and it's not a charity. People have to work and help pay for these homes. They're not free,”Cooley said.

Kunclrs works for Contemporary Title and volunteers at Stonebridge United Methodist Church. She plans to work toward a nursing degree once she is settled in her home.

Cooley said that building the home for her was somewhat of a coincidence. The church had pledged to build during the builder's blitz, and when it was discovered that one of the homeowners was a member of Stonebridge UMC, the Kunclrs family was paired with their church.

“It's not often, as a church, that you get to build for one of your members,” Cooley said. “We've just had an outpouring of in-kind donations, so it's really a group effort.”

The other four builders will be constructing homes for the Drane, Devin Garcia, Husband, Terry Ann Garcia, and Oku families.

McKinney native Empress Drane and her 3-year-old son, Jamien will be buying one of the Charleston Creek homes. Drane attended McKinney high school and excelled as a basketball and track star. After playing basketball for the University of North Texas Lady Eagles and graduating with a business degree, she returned to McKinney to become the recreation specialist at Old Settler's Park.

Devin Garcia and her three children, 10-year-old Eddie, 5-year-old Nicholas, and Isabel, 1, will live in another one of the homes built during the Builders Blitz. Also a McKinney native, Devin Garcia has worked seven years for Timber Blinds and Shutters Co.

Ann Husband and her children, 7-year-old Anjunessia and 11-year-old Marquez were excited to learn they qualified for a Habitat home. Husband, who attended McKinney High School, works for United American Insurance and sings in her church choir.

Terry Ann Garcia and her two children, 8-year-old Thomas and 9-year-old Daisy will have the address of 709 Pride Court. She works as a teller at Independent Bank.

Alfred Oku from Ghana, Africa will be joined by his family later this year in his new home on Pride Court. In 2002, the Ghana government distributed lottery forms for immigration to the United States. The Oku family was selected to be allowed to emigrate from Ghana. Oku's children, 11-year-old Samuel, 10-year-old Rose, 8-year-old Ruby, and 4-year-old Sam are looking forward to the day when they can come to the United States to join their father in their new home.

Using volunteer labor to contain costs, NCC Habitat works with families with annual incomes from 30 percent to 60 percent of the area median. In addition to supplying a modest down payment, each adult from the families receiving the homes must complete 300 hours of sweat equity, volunteering with NCC Habitat. The organization sells the home at no profit and with interest-free financing. The family pays only for materials used to build the home.

Started in 1993 as the McKinney Habitat for Humanity, the North Collin County Habitat affiliate has built more than 27 homes in McKinney, Princeton, Celina and Melissa. More information is available at www.ncc-habitat.org.

Habitat for Humanity International is an ecumenical Christian ministry that welcomes to its work all people dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in Americus, Ga., in 1976, Habitat has built more than 200,000 houses in nearly 100 countries, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than one million people. For more information, visit http://www.habitat.org.

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