Published: November 09, 2009 12:04 am         

Clinton pulls together, saves family from eviction

Clinton — Television house flippers have nothing on the miracle on Clinton’s Elm Street.

“It’s unbelievable,” Peggy Wesley-Fitzthum said Sunday morning inside the house at 720 Elm St.

Last week, more than a hundred volunteers and area businesses descended on a house which sat vacant two years, renovating as the clock ticked on a local widow’s eviction notice. Robert Kennedy, 37, had just died unexpectedly from an ongoing heart and lung condition, leaving his wife, Mary, and their children, Michael, 9 and Maddie, 2, about to be evicted from their home.

Wesley-Fitzthum and her husband, Matt Fitzthum, have a son who is friends with Michael, and the family decided to donate a vacant house they had purchased to a newly formed charity, Simple House-A Community Comes Together. The Kennedy’s will pay $300 a month on the property for five years, at which point they will own it outright and the group will repeat the process for another family.

But last week, standing inside the house in which no one had lived in two years, there was little reason to believe it would be a trophy house. Walls were bare to scraped plaster; the kitchen and bathroom were a mess. But as word spread about the project, help came pouring in.

“I’m amazed,” volunteer Jason Smith said as the group prepared for a 2 p.m. open house and party. “I can’t really put it into words. To get it done this fast …”

Volunteer Shaun Boylan noted in excess of 100 thank-you cards on the new dining room table where paint buckets sat last week. “Yeah, I can’t believe it,” he said. Donations included carpet which had been in a woman’s house for three days before she decided to return it. “It’s brand new,” Boylan said, adding that installers donated their time and labor, as did electricians and other tradesmen. Kitchen countertops, furniture, wall spackling and paint all added up to make the property look new.

Wesley-Fitzthum said she has no idea the monetary value of donated materials, but guessed it in excess of $7,500. The value of the labor of people working day and night throughout the week is impossible to calculate.

“It was incredible,” she said.

The Hilton Garden Inn of Terre Haute put the Kennedy family up for a night, allowing the kids to swim in the pool for their first time ever in a hotel, she said, adding that the family was ready to move in that afternoon.

“I hope it’s a good start for them,” Boylan said. “That’s all we can pray for.”

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.