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"I heard about the program on television and just decided to put an application in," said MacNeil.
A year later she got a letter in the mail and could hardly read the first few lines before all her emotions took over.
"All I could read were the first two lines, and then I just started jumping up and down and screaming," said MacNeil. "I never could have imagined this happening in a million years."
Richard Englehardt, president of NMHFH, has been working with the university for the last five months in acquiring the house and said the celebration is one of his favorite parts of the whole process.
"This is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. You just get such a great feeling of joy and excitement," said Englehardt. "The only thing that is better is sending that letter to the family. It just makes you feel so good."
Mayor Domenique Thornton was on hand and stressed the importance of organizations like NMHFH.
"It is vital to continue to make affordable housing available for families as housing costs continue to rise," said Thornton. "More and more houses become out of reach of the average family. It is terribly important for the city to partner with organizations like Habitat and encourage donations like the one Wesleyan has made."
The school donated the house after a two students approached the university about making a donation to the organization.
"There were lot of houses on campus that were not being used and me and Ed Wu approached the university about making a donation," said Darrah Sipe, president of the Wesleyan chapter of Habitat for Humanity. "It went up to the upper levels, and the university took care of it from there."
Marcia Bromberg, vice president of the university, said making the decision to donate was not a difficult one
"This has really been a group effort and it really was easy to say yes to something like this," said Bromberg.
Wesleyan University students started making their first renovations to the house this weekend and officials hope to have it ready for MacNeil and her family sometime next year.
To qualify to buy a Habitat house, the prospective homeowner must commit to work a minimum of 200 "sweat equity" hours on the project. Homeowners are chosen based on need, willingness to partner with Habitat to help build their house as well as the ability to repay the mortgage.
Habitat for Humanity is a world-wide Christian housing ministry that rehabilitates deteriorating houses or builds new ones for families in need. Habitat uses donations of money and building materials, along with volunteer labor to build houses at a lower cost. The houses are then sold to the new homeowners at no profit and with a zero interest rate mortgage.
To contact Szymon Twarog, call (860)347-3331 Ext. 220 or email stwarog@middletownpress.com.
