On Saturday, January 7, Habitat Greensboro celebrated the first Home Dedication of 2023 for Fantasia, her fiancé Nigel, and her son Kyrie.

Despite the chilly winter weather and overcast sky, numerous friends and family members joined with Habitat Greensboro staff and board members to celebrate Fantasia and to acknowledge her journey to homeownership.

Habitat Greensboro’s Chief Operating Officer, Ruthie Richardson-Robinson, welcomed those in attendance, sharing, “We’re so excited for the family, we’re so excited for our team, our staff, because today marks the end of the building, the construction work. Fantasia, this is an honor for us to be here today to present this house to you and your family. We don’t take it for granted. We don’t take it lightly because you could have chosen to go somewhere else and purchase a home. But we thank God that she did choose Habitat and chose our program. Fantasia, congratulations to you and your family.”

Fantasia’s future home is the fourth of five homes that Habitat Greensboro will build in the tornado-stricken Lincoln Heights Community. Christine Byrd, Habitat Greensboro’s Director of Development and Communications, acknowledged that “this house was made possible with funding from the City of Greensboro through the North Carolina Disaster Recovery Fund. We are proud partners with the City. We’re so excited to continue our partnership with the City, and we’re just so grateful to them for their support.”

Offering his greetings, Habitat Greensboro President and CEO David Kolosieke shared,” This is the second time we’re gathering with Fantasia and her family. There will be one more gathering many years down the road. The first was when we kicked off the start of the build many months ago. Today, we celebrate the end of Habitat’s stewardship of her journey and partnership. And we’re passing over symbolically that stewardship for this home. Fantasia will be paying a mortgage that she’ll be able to afford for the next 30 years. And when this house is paid off, sometimes early, we look forward to gathering with you for a third time to celebrate the end of the journey. But today marks the end of the construction. The time that she has put in, we call it sweat equity hours. About 250 hours she has put in, not only in education and training, helping other families build their homes, but also probably over 100 hours working side-by-side with our many volunteers, particularly the Habitat Greensboro Weekday Crew, our staff in the Construction department, the Family Services department and so many of the other community volunteers have participated. So, we are thankful to have her family and friends together with us.”

The ceremony’s highlight came when future homeowner, Fantasia, spoke to the group, sharing, “I’m super excited to be here. I want to thank Habitat, I want to thank God, my family, because it definitely takes a village. Everyone supported me and welcomed me in, especially [the Homeowner Services] team, Construction. Thank you so much. And I’m just so excited to be here with my family this time, watching Kyrie grow up. And I want to thank the City of Greensboro. Thank you.”

The dedication concluded in Habitat tradition with a group blessing of the home and was followed by a tour of the home for those present.