Lisa Sanders and Ferrice Means' Story

Lisa and Ferrice met at a friend's house in Illinois back in 1994. In February of 1996 Lisa and Ferrice moved St. Cloud because they were concerned about their children's safely. Knowing that the transition would be difficult, Lisa and Ferrice started out at the Community Shelter after struggling to keep their children, Cortez (19) and Shakeea (7), safe from a wide variety of criminal activity in their neighborhood. After three months of being in the shelter, they were accepted and approved to move into an apartment in St. Cloud. "We were excited and felt really good about having our first little apartment for our own family. We both found work and life was good as we started our new life in Central Minnesota."

Lisa and Ferrice had found out about Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity from a friend. Lisa feels that God brought her to Habitat and the information to them as her friend pulled the brochure out of her purse and asked Lisa to go with. "We decided to apply for a Habitat Home because we wanted to try and the area we were living in was filled with crime and the street was so busy with police officers that we didn't know how safe we really were in our own home," Ferrice said, "I feel like I have a peaceful mind out here in our new home. We helped build it and that feels like a huge accomplishment."

During the Sweat Equity process they completed 500 hours as a family within five months of being accepted into the program. Shakeea helped out too and made cookies for some events that Habitat held that she's still talking about. Lisa volunteered for the Salvation Army by cooking and serving the homeless individuals in St. Cloud. "We met new faces as we were through the partnership and we all did this together and now we're now we're neighbors."