This was a great project:

I was proud of my company to do it, and was glad to be part of the crew and organizing committee:

Refugees find hope in new home
Couple given key to Habitat house in Neenah

NEENAH — Four years ago Nezira Zolota and her husband, Bajro, left their home in Sarajevo and came to this country after having lost everything but their lives.

Caught in the crossfire between Serbia and their native Bosnia, they were held for a year in a concentration camp where prisoners regularly were beaten and raped.

"When soldiers took us to the camp they gave us two shopping bags and a couple of minutes to gather up whatever we wanted to take with us," Nezira said Tuesday. "We didn't have anything."

Standing in the kitchen of their new Habitat for Humanity house, she tried to explain how different her life had become.

"Now I've got friends and they're really good to me, and I'm not scared," she said. "I think everything is going to be OK. I have my own house."

Moments later, the Zolotas were outside for the dedication ceremony organized by the Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity, surrounded by friends, relatives and the volunteers from J.J. Keller & Associates who worked side by side with the Zolotas building the home that became theirs Tuesday afternoon.

It was a familiar moment that never fails to impress John Weyenberg, Habitat's
executive director.

"When you can change someone's life by simply putting some hands together to build a home, it's amazing the gratification you get from the job," he said. "The smiles on their faces say it all."

The new two-bedroom Zolota home, located on Division Street, is the latest of 71 Habitat houses constructed since the group was founded in 1993. It is also the second one constructed in partnership with J.J. Keller & Associates in recent years.
To get the project under way, a $50,000 donation was presented to Habitat from the John J. and Ethel D. Keller fund of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. In addition to the financial support, more than 70 employees volunteered their time and contributed an additional $2,600 to help the Zolotas achieve their dream.

The impact of these efforts greatly impressed Neenah Mayor George Scherck.

"What's really important here is building hope, building dreams, building homes," he said. "That takes compassion, commitment and dedicated citizens like the Kellers with a vision for the future of this community."