Habitat Homeowners Help Others Help Themselves

Janice and Kerry Foster with a KJ Foster Scholarship Fund recipient

Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity is celebrating the start of its 30th year anniversary. It began with a kickoff party on October 19, 2018 at the Hartford Marriott Downtown. I interviewed Habitat homeowners Janice and Kerry Foster for the event. Here is their story.  

Raised in Hartford’s Stowe Village housing project, Janice and Kerry Foster lived first-hand the challenges facing their families, friends, and neighbors striving for better lives and looking for a way out of poverty housing. Throughout their school years they were close friends, eventually marrying  and raising a wonderfully close-knit family. Though they lived through some tough times and a searing family tragedy, they became pillars of their Hartford neighborhood, always championing better lives for anyone in need.

As a nineteen-year old seeking his path in life, Kerry seized the opportunity to join the Hartford Fire Department (HFD), and a rewarding, three-decade public service career ensued. Racing to the rescue became a way of life for Kerry. As a member of HFD's Tactical Unit 1 (Tac-1) Heavy Rescue, Kerry fully embraced his career of running toward emergencies. He proudly boasts that TAC-1 is “one of the busiest emergency rescue units in the country.”

While Kerry was pursuing his HFD career, Janice was employed as a medical office assistant and living in substandard Northeast Neighborhood apartments, the only housing her limited income could afford. When she gave birth to her first child, her building’s infestation of mice and roaches became too much to bear. As a caring single mother struggling to make ends meet, it was a call to action. While searching for better housing, Janice heard about Hartford Habitat for Humanity. With a quick inquiry about the process to become a homeowner, Janice thought that Habitat could be the answer to her prayers. It was. 

When her application was accepted, Janice began her sweat equity as soon as she could under the firm but gentle guidance of former Habitat Family Services Director Steve Zwerling, and the one-on-one coaching of Ruth Puff, her Family Services partner, both of whom the Fosters regard as family. It’s been more than twenty years since Janice moved into her Habitat home. A couple of years after settling in, she and Kerry married, dedicating their lives to each other and their family. Though his successful firefighting career enabled them to live almost anywhere, Kerry emphasized that he and Janice are “anchored to the Northeast Neighborhood forever. We will never leave our 52 Clark Street home,” a home where they raised four children, and welcome visits from their four grandchildren.

Janice and Kerry Foster's Habitat Home

It was a neighborhood they loved - a neighborhood where they could channel their love of Hartford by extending their generous helping hands to ensure their neighbors in need are sheltered, clothed, educated, and fed; they are always cooking for families and big community functions often using the two barbecue smokers in their backyard. Habitat’s mission played a large part in “opening our eyes even wider to the needs of others,” said Kerry.  Yet it all could have ended when they lost their son Kerry Jr., known as KJ, to a senseless random drive-by shooting on Memorial Day in 2006. 

KJ was a bright, popular eighth grader simply playing in his yard when he tragically died. A visiting friend was wounded and survived. Through the strength of their faith, and to honor of the memory of their beloved son, KJ’s passing became another call to action for Janice and Kerry to give even more of their time and treasure to the community. In memory of KJ they established the KJ Foster Scholarship Fund, and then they poured even more of their personal savings into setting up another scholarship, the Janice and Kerry Foster, Sr. Scholarship Fund, both of which are managed by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Also in memory of KJ, the Fosters sponsor a Waverly Park Little League team, and during Hartford's annual Safe Night Out event a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the Boys and Girls Club.

“Losing our son made us stronger. We’re proud to be role models and help make things happen. People need to take charge of their lives, and we’re glad to help them. You don’t always need money to do good, most of the time you just need to dedicate the time,” said Kerry.

As Janice so wonderfully believes, "If you give, give from the heart -- and it's the little things that count. You have to start somewhere. It's a wonderful thing to give back. I wouldn't live my life any other way."

Kerry B. Foster Jr.  3 on 3 Basketball Tournament Shirt

By running to the rescue of others and giving back to the community, Janice and Kerry paved the way for neighbors to follow their lead and work together to make their community safer, quieter and a healthier place to call home. Kerry believes in Habitat for Humanity. “It’s a great place. It offers a lot, but you have to go get it. Take the initiative. They’ll help you help yourself.”


Don Shaw, Jr.
Writer and Editor
RedTruckStonecatcher.com

Photos courtesy of Janice and Kerry Foster, Rich Wright Productions, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Highlighted Links are to videos and Janice Foster's quotation on the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving website.

A Blossoming Partnership Grows Beautifully

Monrovia team ready to plant at the West Granby Habitat for Humanity house.

On a cool November 3, 2016 morning, a tractor trailer, emblazoned with the Monrovia logo, arrived promptly at 9:00 a.m. It was loaded with fresh, locally grown stock from its Granby, CT nursery ready for planting at the new Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity home in West Granby, CT. With tools in hand, a skilled Monrovia team led by Mark Hixson and Jess McCue descended on the site to dig, plant, mulch and water an expertly selected variety of plants, shrubberies, and trees in an artfully designed plan; the  perfect finishing touch to the home being readied for its new owners. With the plantings completed by noon, the seeds for a perennial partnership had been sown.

The Habitat-Monrovia partnership germinated when Mark, Monrovia's East Coast Inside Sales Coach, contacted me after reading about our Granby build on a flyer that I posted widely throughout town. Mark said Monrovia would be keen on donating plants to the local endeavor. It would even include Monrovia's design team's expertise led by Jess. The results speak for themselves. Since the Granby home, Monrovia has helped beautify twelve more Hartford Habitat homes, the latest being in 2018 on East Hartford's Bliss Street and Moore Avenue this past June.

Headquartered in Azusa, California, Monrovia Plant Company is a national nursery whose trademark is Grow Beautifully®. "Since 1926, Monrovia has been the nation’s leading premium consumer plant brand, led by a passion for growing the healthiest plants to enhance the beauty of American landscapes." Monrovia has four growing operations: California, Georgia, Oregon and Connecticut covering the four corners of the United States.

Habitat for Humanity has always emphasized the need for its homes to compliment the architectural styles and needs of the neighborhoods and communities in which it builds. House designs are adapted to ensure they support a city's long-term vision and plan of development. One aspect of that design is best described as "curb appeal," which not only considers what the house looks like, but also how it sits on its property and the landscape around it. For Hartford Habitat, Monrovia's willingness to partner is proving strategic. It's an essential element for elevating the profile of what affordable housing really is, and what it can do for a community. Not only does Hartford Habitat build new homes to create home ownership opportunities, it also rehabilitates homes in disrepair. This is especially critical as Habitat looks to work with the City of Hartford's Blight Remediation Team to eliminate blight and return properties to productive use. It's all part of Hartford Habitat's commitment to Habitat for Humanity International's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.

The following series of photographs and captions are representative of Monrovia's commitment to Habitat and the greater Hartford community. As Habitat Executive Director Karraine Moody explains, "It's a blessing to have Monrovia on board as a generous partner dedicated to improving the lives of others by sharing the natural beauty of the world that grows around us."

Monrovia's first endeavor in West Granby village was also Hartford Habitat's first rural build; a build much welcomed by Granby townspeople.

Team Monrovia busy planting a pine barrier along West Granby Road,
along with a Birch tree and Lilacs bordering the driveway entrance.

Planting Hydrangeas, Hostas, Day Lilies, and
Carex along the foundation and front walk.

Mark Hixson explains to homeowners Jaime and Ralph Wyman the plant varieties
Monrovia provided, as well as instructions on how best to care for them. 

Next it was on to Main Street in Hartford on June 14, 2017, site of three single family Habitat homes nearing completion, where Monrovia teamed up with Hartford's Capital City YouthBuild to plant shrubberies, perennials, and ornamental trees around each home. 

Monrovia's tractor trailer arriving with plants for
three Habitat homes at 2636, 2644, and 2650 Main Street in Hartford

Moving plants into place takes some muscle.

Karraine Moody (left), Habitat Executive Director, and
Tracy Thomas, Habitat Family Services Director, set
plants in place along the front porch.

Jess McCue and Hartford YouthBuild leader Frank Mangiagli
were thrilled with the results of the collaboration.

Two YouthBuild team members were still
all smiles after a hot day's work.

On October 19 2017, Monrovia arrived on Hartford's South Marshall Street to landscape the three soon to be completed duplexes. 

Monrovia, with the assistance of Eversource volunteers, landscaped the
South Marshall Street duplexes in half a day!

The results are spectacular!

The curb appeal of Habitat's three new duplexes at
161/163, 171/173 and 181/183 South Marshall Street was
greatly enhanced by Monrovia's landscaping

Most recently, Monrovia landscaped new homes at 66 Bliss Street and 9 Moore Avenue in East Hartford. Again, the results are excellent! As Construction Director Kris McKelvie noted, "People have been slowing down as they drive by to compliment the gorgeous gardens." And later this summer, Monrovia plans to plant similar gardens at the new Habitat homes under construction at 35 and 37 Armistice Street in New Britain.

66 Bliss Street, East Hartford.
The garden is thriving as the lawn begins to sprout.

As of the end of 2018, Monrovia's team will have assisted on fifteen Habitat homes since November 2016, which includes the specialty walkway entrance plantings at a rehabilitated home on Hartford's Roosevelt Street. Monrovia's generosity is making a visible difference in the lives of Habitat families, and the neighborhoods where they live. By working together Habitat and Monrovia have grown a blossoming partnership.  Long may it bloom!

Don Shaw, Jr.

Writer and Editor

RedTruckStonecatcher.com

Photos by Don Shaw, Jr.