By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Linda Lonchar-Cherry grew up on Pearl Avenue, attending St. Mary’s Elementary School, South Middle School and the former Parkwood High School.
Friday, she symbolically broke ground a mile from there, on a hill overlooking 26th Street and Oliver Avenue, on property that will be the first of what she hopes will be 20 replacements for homes lost in the May 22 tornado.
A nonprofit organization, Homes of Hope Inc., that she co-founded with friend Crystal Wolfe, had closed on the property just hours before. Their goal is to build three homes there, and 17 additional homes elsewhere in Joplin in the next three to five years.
The two have been residents of Branson for more than 20 years, but have maintained close ties to Joplin through family and friends still living here.
Having responded to Joplin within hours of the tornado, the pair returned to Branson having made the decision to help with immediate needs. In 48 hours, they sent four truckloads of water and food to Joplin.
“Then we decided, they’re going to need long-term housing,” said Lonchar-Cherry. With experience in sales, marketing and event planning, they began a fundraising effort in Branson.
The project is being funded through donations and proceeds from the Homes of Hope thrift store, 1502 S. Main St., which opened under the direction of volunteers in December. To date, the organization’s biggest contributors, they said, are Oscar Mayer, United Way of Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas, and Joplin resident Charlie Brown.
Sam Anselm, Joplin assistant city manager, attended the groundbreaking with City Manager Mark Rohr and said the homes will make a welcome dent in the city’s need.
“We’re here to support them however they need it, in any way we can,” Anselm said. “It’s interesting to see — and we’ve had at least 118,000 people volunteer — to see what two individuals can do.
“Everything makes a dent. When you have so many people doing so many little things, it all adds up. They’re wanting to do 20 homes, then we have other groups do 10 or 20, and it all adds up.”
Applications will be available on the Homes of Hope website at homesofhopejoplin.org starting Wednesday. Lonchar-Cherry said there would be “some financial responsibility on the part of the families” who apply.
“It’s possible we will finance or we will have a lender in place that will finance the project. As we go along, the homes will basically roll over into their names,” she said.
“We’ll also do a raffle for a home, selling 5,000 tickets at $100 each, that will then in turn fund the building of five or six more homes.”
Homeowners must meet income and other guidelines that Lonchar-Cherry said still are being completed. “They’ll also put sweat equity in it — if not in their home, in the next one we’ll build.”
To date, more than 500 people have volunteered for the home build, which will be under the direction of Cornerstone Building.
A timeline will be made available through Rebuild Joplin so volunteers with specific skills will know when to volunteer.
“We hope it will be a blueprint for other communities that want to start a grass-roots home-building effort,” Lonchar-Cherry said.
