Dream lives on …

Family, friends keep alive man’s hope to build Habitat house

Gail Allison-Sanderson remembers how excited her husband, Bob, would get when he talked about going out to build a house with Habitat for Humanity.

“It was something he always talked about,” she said. “He liked the idea of helpings people.”

Unfortunately, Bob Allison of Ketchum, Idaho, died suddenly in 1999 while playing a round of golf. His family and friends, however, didn’t forget Allison’s desire to help people build simple, decent shelter for themselves and their families.

They created a memorial fund in Allison’s name and they began to collect contributions. They had hoped to start a new affiliate in Sun Valley, Idaho, in Allison’s honor, but they discovered that the land prices in the popular resort areas were rising too high, too fast.

Over time the memorial fund rose to more than $25,000, and the nearby Magic Valley Habitat affiliate found a perfect family with whom to partner.

Phebe Stansell, her sister, Paula Bennett, and her sister’s 17-year-old daughter, Witney, now share a house in Twin Falls. Bennett has muscular dystrophy, and she is confined to a wheelchair.

Their current home is not equipped for people with disabilities. There is no wheelchair shower, elevated toiled or electronic door opener. Bennett rarely gets to leave the house because it’s too difficult to move her though the narrow hallways and doorways.

“We’ve been praying for a long time for a home that is equipped for the handicapped,” said Stansell. “We never thought we’d be able to get one.”

The Magic Valley affiliate applied to the Lions Clubs International Foundation for a $23,000 grant to build a home for a disabled family, said Carol Robertson, the affiliate’s treasurer. They won the grant, combined it with money from Allison’s memorial fund and began construction in the fall of 2003.

Allison-Sanderson went out to Twin Falls to help with construction for a day in October. “I think [my husband] would have been thrilled and honored,” she said. “Especially because he would have helped build for a family with special needs.”

But they hit a snag. While digging the foundation, work crews slammed into layers of thick rock and rising costs threatened to stall the project.

Allison-Sanderson was undeterred. She wrote people who contributed to the memorial fund and they donated another $11,000 to keep things on track. The home should be completed in March.

The new house will have wider doors and hallways for wheelchair access, raised toilets, hand bars in the bath and other special features to make life easier for Stansell and her sister.

“It has everything my sister needs,” Stansell said. “It will give her some independence. Without their generosity, we never would have been able to get a house like this.”