Teamwork Nets Alix a New Home
Mitchell College senior Alix O'Neil is a member of the women's
basketball and softball teams. Alix, her four siblings and
mother will be the future residents of a renovated house in New
London thanks to the work of Habitat for Humanity. As the story
below illustrates, Alix's friends and teammates have offered a
helping hand in the process.
Click here to read the article by The
Day's Gavin Keefe
Photo Gallery from softball's day at Habitat for
Humanity
Photo Gallery from women's basketball's day at
Habitat for Humanity
By Gavin Keefe
Publication: The Day
NEW LONDON, Conn. - Sounds of a
demolition crew at work break the peaceful quiet of a recent
Saturday morning.
There is a buzz of activity inside the two-story, five-bedroom
home on Brainard Street. Wearing hard hats, goggles and masks,
workers use crowbars and hammers to dismantle interior walls. Dust
particles fill the air.
A bucket brigade form a line near a second floor window, taking
turns dumping debris outside into a pile. Sunlight creeps inside
the messy back room.
The mood is upbeat, the energy level high.
This is a true labor of love for these workers - Mitchell
College softball players who traded their precious Saturday to
volunteer from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to help senior teammate and
friend, Alix O'Neil, who also plays basketball.
"I'm glad we can be here for her," senior Marjorie Oliveira
said. "She's a great friend. She's always there for me and the
whole team. We love her to death."
O'Neil, her four siblings and mother, Jennifer, are the future
residents of this Habitat for Humanity renovation project. Jennifer
is required to volunteer 400 sweat equity hours, half of which can
be performed by family and friends.
The Mitchell College athletic community has rallied behind the
family. The women's basketball team worked at a different Habitat
for Humanity house in January while the men's lacrosse team plans
to be at the O'Neil-Lopez house in upcoming weeks.
"I feel so blessed and so touched," Jennifer said. "I can't
thank them enough. Mitchell rocks. They're great, great kids.
… These are houses that love built."
Bernadette Macca and her teams - she coaches both softball and
basketball - happily agreed to volunteer.
"Getting the Habitat House is life changing for them," Macca
said. "They've just struggled so much. They're really, real good
kids, all of them. It's going to put them in a place to help them
financially and be secure with a home."
Life has been a constant battle for Jennifer, a single mother of
five, and her family. They've moved several times and currently
live in a three bedroom apartment in New London.
Jennifer juggles her hectic family life with working second
shift hours for the state of Connecticut at a group home.
While renting a house on Montauk Avenue, Jennifer applied for
help from Habitat for Humanity of Southeastern Connecticut after
learning about the organization's seminar, beginning a long process
that started in January 2010. Word finally came last summer that
her family would be receiving a home.
"All I did was cry and call all my friends and family," Jennifer
said. "Every single solitary second that it popped into my head I
prayed to God for my family to receive this blessing, and it
worked. It really worked."
Alix remembers the emotion in her mother's voice the day she
called with the life-altering news.
"I love my mother to death," Alix said. "She works so hard for
us. I definitely have a really strong, independent mother. We
haven't had a father figure in our lives. It's always been us and
her. I love the fact that she's being rewarded."
Renovations are scheduled to be finished in August. The
O'Neil-Lopez family will finally have a safe, affordable and
comfortable place to call their own. No more cleaning out mouse
traps, or begging landlords to fix problems. No more cramped living
conditions. No more eating dinner in separate rooms.
"It's definitely going to be amazing," said Alix, a 2006 New
London High School graduate.
Jennifer is thrilled that her children - Alix, 22, Miriaha
O'Neil, 19, 10-year-old twins Giovanni and Jonathan Jr. Lopez, and
Gabriayla Lopez, 8 - will each have their own personal space.
"I've been a mother since I was 16 years old and now I'm 39,"
Jennifer said. "I've been doing this for a long time and now to be
able to give my children this, I can't even put it into enough
words to say how I feel. My children are my lungs. They are the
reason I breathe. They are the reason I do everything I do."
It's a safe bet that Alix's Mitchell College teammates will be
there for the open house. Her teammates are part of her extended
family. They often go to Alix for advice.
Jennifer, who will pay a zero interest mortgage, is planning to
hold a big party at the new house to thank everyone.
As far as the softball team is concerned, they've already been
rewarded for their volunteer work.
"I'm excited just to know that we were all a part of this," said
junior Marissa Thomas, who's from New London and attended St.
Bernard.
Alix has a bright future, too. She will graduate in the spring
with a degree in sports management. She wants to coach someday. She
was recently named to the New England Collegiate Conference first
team for women's basketball.
"She's had a lot of things stacked up against her and has worked
really hard and always has valued school and sports and kept on the
right side of the line," Macca said. "She has an unbelievably high
GPA. She's an accomplished athlete. She's really a remarkable
kid."
