PIPESTONE -- Southwestern Habitat for Humanity Inc. will dedicate a recently renovated Pipestone home today, and members of the organization are hopeful that a family to buy the home will be found soon.
The children of longtime Pipestone residents Neil and Zona Quinn decided to set up a memorial fund in honor of their parents to be used to build a Habitat for Humanity house.
"They went to their mom and told her when she was still alive, and she was just thrilled," said Marie Ekdom, a part-time Habitat for Humanity administrative assistant in Pipestone.
Then when the Quinns' aunt, Lucille Loos, suddenly died less than two weeks later, the family decided to donate her home to Habitat and pay for all renovations.
"The home is charming," Ekdom said. "The struggle with finding a family is because of the size of the house. It has only two small bedrooms.
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"We've had to fit a family to the house," she said.
Members of the Southwestern Habitat for Humanity and the Quinn family hope to find a qualified applicant to purchase the home. Habitat for Humanity offers a zero-percent interest loan for the life of the mortgage to qualified individuals.
In a letter to the editor, Tom Quinn, who now lives in Colorado, shared his feelings with the Pipestone community.
"In this spirit of giving back to a community which offered so much to our family, we are hopeful that this home will offer another family the same lifetime values and memories," Quinn wrote. "We are confident that the new family will benefit from the wonderful neighbors and beautiful park as we did while we lived in Pipestone."
The public is invited to attend a fund-raiser breakfast that begins at 8:30 a.m. today at Pipestone's City Park. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is providing supplemental funding. Following the breakfast at 10 a.m., the home, which is located just a half-block from the park, will be dedicated.
Following the dedication ceremony, people can tour the home at 710 Fifth St. to see the renovations. A wall was rebuilt, an egress window added, new carpeting was put in, the bathroom has a new floor and shower, and landscaping was completed.
If a family is not found soon for the home, the local affiliate will look to sell the home and use the funds to build a Habitat home.
"We realize it is not good stewardship to keep it empty all winter," Ekdom said.
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According to Ekdom, the home would be ideal for a single mother with one child or for a single person or a couple.
"Someone just picked up an application yesterday," she said. "There are people out there who qualify."
People interested in applying for the Pipestone home may call 1-866-220-6833 or (507) 562-1001.
