WHAT DOES HOME MEAN TO YOU?
We work in an industry that revolves around homes. Houses, condos, investment properties and so on but for the most part our clients are here to get help purchasing, refinancing or building a home. So when that’s all done, what is it that actually turns a house into a home? Is it what you put inside of it? The decor, the furniture and the paint on the walls might be a small part of it but it’s often the people that are in those four walls that accelerate that vital transition from house to home.
I think as a society we often get caught up in the race of always wanting more. More space, more furniture and better toys. Then you read an article like the one about Edie Schnell’s award winning essay on what home means to her and you start to appreciate how much you really do have. Edie is a grade 4 student in Calgary who won a national writing contest, originally from Ethiopia but adopted to a Canadian family when she was seven years old. “With all that I have been through, home is different to me than a lot of other kids. Home means a person, place or thing that makes you feel good when you are around them.” She says. Edie talks about the lack of food, clean water and shelter in Ethiopia and how as a girl she didn’t get to go to school. The prize for winning was $60,000 to her chosen Habitat for Humanity affiliate, which she sent to her local affiliate in Southern Alberta.
Habitat for Humanity has been around in Canada since 1985 and consists of over 50,000 volunteers. It’s a national, non-profit, organization working towards the goal of safe and decent housing for all. They promote affordable homeownership as a way to break the cycle of poverty and West Isle Mortgages has partnered with MCAP, one of our lenders to be a part of a program called “Key to Hope”. Key to Hope is an exciting new program supporting Habitat for Humanity and if you have a mortgage through MCAP it’s as simple as adding a donation of your choice to your mortgage payment. Even better MCAP is committed to matching dollar for dollar all donations made by consumers.
We are all here to help you achieve your dreams of home ownership and now we can help Habitat partner families realize those dreams too!