The Seminole Ridge High School Construction Academy has completed its second modular home for Habitat for Humanity. The home was dedicated to the Cenom family on Thursday, Feb. 27 in Lake Worth.
More than 150 students participate in the Seminole Ridge High School Construction Academy as a four-year choice program. The students must maintain a minimum grade average in all classes in order to stay in the academy.
The house was finished in less than one calendar year. The academy students did all of the construction work, mentored by their teacher, Rick Terkovich, architect and project manager volunteer David Porter, local subcontractors and Palm Beach County building inspectors. The Royal Palm Beach High School Air Conditioning Academy students, led by academy teacher Patrick Raney, installed all of the ductwork and air conditioning equipment.
Habitat for Humanity supplied the materials required for the project, the group’s 171st Palm Beach County home. The group also provided the site in Lake Worth and selected the family to purchase the house.
The new owner of the home is Widlene Cenom, a certified nursing assistant employed at Almost Family, a home healthcare company. Cenom was only a few months pregnant when she learned that her husband had been killed in the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. At that point, she was barely making ends meet and would not have been able to qualify for a conventional mortgage. In 2012, Cenom was selected by Habitat for Humanity’s 11-member Family Selection Committee to be offered a home and a mortgage. Her journey included a minimum of 400 hours working on other Habitat homes so she could learn to care for her own. She was provided with classes in finance, maintenance, home safety, insurance and budgeting. These steps insure a stronger future for Cenom and increase her ability to pay off her 30-year interest-free mortgage through Habitat for Humanity of Palm Beach County. Soon, Cenom and her 3-year-old daughter, Radlee, will be living in a safe and affordable home.
Going forward, the Seminole Ridge program anticipates building at least one house each year. The floor system is already built for another home, and the tentative ship date for that house is around Christmas of this year.
ABOVE: The SRHS Construction Academy works on the home.
