As the nation mourns President Jimmy Carter’s death Sunday, Michiana’s Habitat for Humanity community is especially reflective.
Carter had strong Christian faith and believed housing, with some hard work, is a basic human right. He and First Lady Roselynn were huge promoters of Habitat for Humanity.
In 2018 the work brought them to Mishawaka, where that year’s Carter Work Project built The Fields at Highland, 41 new homes built on the former Northside Little League site.
Habitat St. Joseph County CEO Jim Williams says it wouldn’t have happened without LeRoy Troyer, who introduced him to Carter and had served on Habitat’s international board.
Williams says he and Troyer were working on a Carter project in Memphis in 2016 when they conceived the Mishawaka project one morning over breakfast.
"We took a napkin at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and we started to list out key leaders and organizations in St. Joseph County that might be interested in helping us raise enough money, and to put the plan together to host a Carter Work Project," Williams said.
Williams says Troyer’s health was failing from a stroke but he made it out to the site in 2018, and he was thrilled to bring a Carter project to his hometown. He died in December at 81, three months after its completion.