ADAMS – Dixie Bergstrom and her two teenage sons will move into their new home December 11.

Monday, November 29, 1999

ADAMS – Dixie Bergstrom and her two teenage sons will move into their new home December 11.

On Sunday, they had a house-warming party that filled their new home.

It is the 10th project undertaken by the Habitat for Humanity – Freeborn Mower affiliate.

Cindy Carlson and her three teenaged children will move into the 11th Habitat affiliate project sometime before Christmas.

Next year, two more houses will be built in Austin and Albert Lea.

Every house that is built by Habitat is blessed when it is formally dedicated and that’s what happened Sunday in Adams.

The Rev. Allen Gunderson, pastor of Little Cedar Lutheran Church, gave the invocation in a one-hour ceremony in the kitchen and dining room of the Bergstrom family’s home.

Wayne Hanson, president of the Habitat affiliate board, welcomed guests. "It’s always a pleasure to take a pile of lumber and a hole in the ground and turn it into a home," Hanson said.

Ground was broken in mid-August for the first Habitat affiliate project outside the Albert Lea or Austin cities’ limits.

Work began Labor Day weekend in September. Originally scheduled to be finished by January 1, 2000, the house was completed last week. Although finishing work needs to be done, including interior painting and laying carpet, Bergstrom and her sons will move in next week.

Dale Beckel, site supervisor, and Jim Schroeder, volunteer coordinator, were praised by Hanson for their efforts. In addition, Mrs. Jim (Shirley) Schroeder and a group of Adams women, who prepared food and refreshments for the volunteer workers, also won Hanson’s praise.

"If I was looking for a town to live in, this would be the first on my list," Hanson said.

The project began with Gayle Bergstrom, a new Habitat board member from the Adams area, suggesting to the affiliate’s leaders that a house be built in Adams.

Little Cedar Lutheran Church and its sister church, Marshall Lutheran, agreed to support the project in every way they could.

Despite the fall harvest taking many workers to the fields, a core of volunteers assembled each day to work on the split-level, three-bedroom home on property donated by Bev and Dwain Vangsness.

Bergstrom received a symbolic key to the city of Adams from Rose Schaefer, an Adams City Council member, the shovel that threw the first scoop of dirt for the project and a Bible.

A long list of volunteers and businesses, contributing to the project, were thanked, and the Rev. Greg Leif, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Adams and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Johnsburg, blessed the family and their new home.

When the new homeowner was asked to speak, she did from a thankful heart. "Thanks," she said, "I’m just totally overwhelmed. Thanks to the city of Adams, all the volunteers, all the businesses who supported the project and all of the individuals who helped."

"You’ve been just great. I can’t believe it," she said.