By Alixandria Wells-Good

Contributing writer

ST. PARIS – Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County will complete its 13th home since 2007 in the coming months.

Habitat completes one home a year for members of the community who are in need. Anyone in Champaign County can apply for a home, as long as they are working, paying taxes, and have lived in the county for at least one year. For the majority of 2023, the organization has been working on a project in St. Paris, which will soon be a beautiful, star energy home ready for its new family.

Beth Fudge and her children Ayden, Abriella and Aveah, are the recipients of the home. Fudge completed her application with Habitat for Humanity in 2018, hoping to be able to provide a “forever home” for her children to grow up in, and to also come back to when they are grown with families of their own. This was important for Fudge as she moved around often during her childhood and was “in and out of foster,” she said.

Now a mother and manager at Great Clips in Urbana, Fudge feels grateful to Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County for helping her have the opportunity to give her children something so important and life changing.

She recalls receiving the call while at work from Habitat for Humanity’s Marcia Ward telling her she had been chosen for the home.

She said: “I definitely cried. It was so much emotion, and excitement. It’s not every day that your dreams come true. We all pray for the things you need and want in your life, and not every day are they gifted to you.”

Fudge has been very involved in the process of building the home. Home recipients are required to put in at least 250 hours of “sweat equity” while the home is being completed. The Fudge family has not only put in their work, but has gotten to pick out paint colors and other things about the home throughout the building process to help customize it to their life and style, making their home even more special and unique to them.

Fudge said that Habitat goes above and beyond making sure the homes are dream homes for people.

“It’s not something that’s just thrown together, they really take into consideration your personality,” she said.

Fudge mentioned that there will even be a matching dog house for the family’s goldendoodle, Buddy.

Ward, a board member for Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County, said that the organization received 14 applications for this home, which was a higher number than usual.

Through a series of vetting including background checks and interviews, they eventually narrowed it down to two families. Ultimately for the “lucky 13 home” they chose the Fudge family, however Ward shared that Habitat was so impressed with the other family as well that they decided to choose them for next year’s home. She also said that Habitat closed on the lot for that home already, and it will also be in St. Paris.

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