Thanks to the generosity of the Signal Mountain, Tennessee Community, Stephen and Rachel McRoy, and their children, are the owners of a new Habitat for Humanity home. “This family has been through so much,” says Connie O’Neal, Director of Family Services with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga. “It has been a privilege to work with the Signal Mountain community to help them become homeowners.”
Over the last nine years, the McRoys have endured more challenges than most couples face in a lifetime. Before they were married, a devastating accident claimed the life of Stephen’s cousin, and left him with broken arms, legs, neck, a brain injury and damage to his heart. He was flown by Life Force to Erlanger where he remained in the Intensive Care Unit for three months. Stephen was told he would never walk again nor return to his job as a mechanic. He was faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills that insurance would not cover.
Proving the doctors wrong, Stephen learned to walk again and returned to work, but soon suffered a heart attack on the job. At 27, he and Rachael were forced to file for bankruptcy and disability.
Not long after the accident, Stephen and Rachael welcomed their first child, Tyler, into the world. Tyler is a beautiful boy full of enthusiasm and mischief. When Tyler was two, Stephen and Rachael noticed that he wasn’t developing like other children. He was still crawling most of the time and had trouble when he tried to walk, the McRoys took their son to the doctor and received the diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Tyler had to undergo major surgery to help his muscles function properly and eventually enable him to walk. After years of therapy and treatment is now thriving.
The financial toll from Stephen and Tyler’s treatment uprooted the McRoys from apartment complex to trailer park until they finally settled in with family, while they tried to renovate an unused trailer that was in extremely poor condition. When Mary Lee Ziebold at Signal Mountain Social Services learned they were planning on moving their young family into this space, she recommended them for the Habitat Build Project on Signal Mountain.
The McRoy’s need coincided with an effort then underway to build a Habitat for Humanity home on Signal Mountain, where the first Habitat home in the Chattanooga area had been built more than 20 years ago. “The Signal Mountain community has responded to the Habitat Project and the McRoy family with enormous enthusiasm and support,” says Jack Montgomery, who coordinated the project. “This deserving family won our hearts.”
Construction of the home started last fall. “We truly appreciate the support that the Signal Mountain community has given to this project, says Pete Palmer, President of the board of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga. “It has been a privilege for us to be a part of the process that has helped a deserving family have a safe place to call home. The effort would not have happened without the enthusiastic support of the Signal Mountain community.”
Donations and support for the effort were provided by many individuals from Signal Mountain, as well as Alexian Brothers, Alexian Village Residents, Insulation Unlimited, Lookout Spray & Paint, Signal Crest United Methodist Church, Signal Mountain Baptist Church, Signal Mountain Branch – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church, Signal Mountain Social Services, Signal Mountain United Methodist Church, Superior Air Systems, St. Albans Episcopal Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Tennessee Lawn Care, Therm-Con, Wayside Presbyterian Church, and Zion Carpet Mills, Inc.
Visit www.habichatt.org for more information about other Habitat projects in Chattanooga.
