Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

MENTONE — Fifteen years ago, the town of Mentone had its last Habitat for Humanity home built.

About five years ago, Tim and Jackie Croy purchased three lots on North Franklin Street and then decided to donate the property to Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County.

Thursday evening, May 30, Habitat for Humanity, the Croys and business sponsors broke ground at 405 N. Franklin St. for what will become the first home for Kimber Boyd, her four daughters and her mother.

“I actually go to The River through WCC (Warsaw Community Church), it’s a single moms group, and they posted that applications were open on their page, and it was just the right timing,” Kimber said. “My mom had recently been in the hospital and the path that we were going on for a home, realistically, got us really thinking that we weren’t going to be able to and then it opened back up, so it was like it was meant to be.”

Currently living in Warsaw, she said living in Mentone will be a huge change for them.

“2024 has been a very interesting year for us. We’ve had lots of personal stuff going on. My daughter had surgery Tuesday, and then I had a kid have staples in the head. These last couple of months have been really crazy and we haven’t had a chance to (check out the town). We’ve been looking more into it,” Kimber said.

With the six of them, she said they currently have no space where they’re living and “it’s falling apart. Our landlord does not do the best job at keeping up with the maintenance on it.” When the Mentone home is completed, and everyone will have their own space, Kimber said that will be a big benefit for everyone.

Habitat homeowners have to put sweat equity into their home build. Kimber estimated she was at about 116 hours of the required 250 hours by the dedication ceremony.

“It’s been really fun though,” she said, meeting new people and coming out of her bubble a little bit.

Before the groundbreaking, Ben Logan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County, explained, “We actually have enough land to do two houses, but this is only one house right now, so we’re breaking ground on the first house in Mentone.”

He said the home will have four bedrooms and two bathrooms, which is his first Habitat build with four bedrooms since he became executive director.

“It will be on the southern lot on North Franklin Street, which is a beautiful, country lot we have here,” Logan said, adding later that Habitat was happy to be back in Mentone.

Dennis Judy, Habitat construction manager, said each lot is 72 feet north and south and 130 feet east and west. He said the lots are about 10% bigger than the lots were in Claypool at Habitat’s last build. The Boyd home will be about 1,350 square feet.

The biggest house Habitat has built in the last few years was a five-bedroom home in North Webster for a family of seven, he recalled.

Logan said excavation, by G & G Hauling & Excavating, is slated for the week of June 10. Judy said they’re hoping for construction to be completed in five to six months, if everything falls into place.

Tim and Jackie Croy donated the property to Habitat back in 2020, Logan said.

“So we ended up buying the property — I’m not sure how many years ago, but it’s probably been five, six at least. It had a rundown house on the one lot. There’s three lots total, and it wasn’t being kept up and all that. But we ended up purchasing that before it went to tax sale. Well, then we maintained it, the house was taken down that was in disrepair and then we kind of sat on it for a while,” Tim recalled.

He read an article on Habitat for Humanity and how one of their biggest problems was getting land donated. Jackie said they discussed donating the Franklin Street property to Habitat before making the decision to do so.

“It’s like, ‘We’ve got three lots over there, let’s donate those to Habitat.’ Yeah, we could have sold those, but we know what it’s like to struggle in life, so we wanted to give back to our community, which is what I’m all about,” Tim said.

He contacted Habitat and told them he wanted to donate the lots. He hopes the home will bring a lot of joy to the Boyd family.

“We’re really glad to be a part of it, and glad to be able to do something like that — to help our community,” Tim said.

As a member of the town council and chamber of commerce, he reiterated that he is all about giving back to the community. “And this is one great example of how we can give back to such a great organization to help a family.”

Tim said Jackie is very supportive of everything he does and they are very glad to be able to help out a family like this.

For the Boyd home, Logan said there are some great sponsors involved, including Sym Financial, Lake City Bank, Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Kerlin Bus Sales & Leasing, G & G, Kuert Concrete, Wildman — Kimber’s employer — and Creighton Brothers.

Before the ceremonial turning of the dirt for Thursday’s groundbreaking, he said Habitat has not been in Mentone since 2009. “For me, that’s too long, and I’m very excited to be back,” Logan said, thanking the Croys for securing the land.

When asked to speak, Josh Wildman, Wildman CEO, brought up Audrey Russell, Wildman director of dream management, with him. He said Russell and Kimber have a super cool relationship, and having a home was Kimber’s dream.

“That’s our whole purpose at Wildman is to help change lives, and we do that by getting dirty things clean and delivering them back with love, and Kimber has been a huge asset to our team over so many years, so I’m excited for your family and girls. I’m just excited to be here with everybody. Thanks, Audrey, for your leadership,” Wildman said.

Mindy Truex, Creighton Brothers president, said, “Habitat is such a great organization. They do so much good in all of the communities in Kosciusko County and in the United States. But when this opportunity in Mentone came up, it just felt very special and something that I really hoped I could get those that needed to also jump on that bandwagon that I had to get approval from to say yes, and it was one of the quickest ones that I’ve ever received.”

She said she was thankful that they get to be a part of this project and looks forward to when the Boyd family gets their keys and in “this great place in a great community.”

Representatives of Sweetwater Assembly gave the blessing and prayer for the ceremony.

There will be Women Build days for the home, but specific dates are to be announced, Logan said. “It’s going to be changing up a little bit, but hopefully it’ll be bigger and better,” he said. “Definitely, if people are interested, keep a watch on our Facebook page and our eNewsletter and all that, but, yes, we are having one.”

Support for Habitat and their builds can come in various ways.

“If anyone is interested in financially supporting this house, we always need donors to help us buy the materials that our volunteers build with, and also if you’re interested in volunteering, you can sign up on our website. You can volunteer, you can financially donate and support the Boyd family and this house project, but other than that, we’re just excited to be back in Mentone and excited to have an active build site again soon,” Logan said.