A Pinellas County single mother got the keys to her brand new home on Monday. It’s a home built by all female volunteers.
Kimberly Ann Sparks has a new home and can smile now but she says life hit her with everything that could go wrong after her divorce.
“Over that period of time I’ve been in six car accidents, I’ve had heart failure and heart surgery. I’ve been in the hospital twice for that,” she said. “When Hurricane Debbie came over a few years ago, it lifted the tiles off of our roof and got rain all over everything. And it ruined everything we own.”
But then Sparks found something that hit harder in the form of hammers and high heels. Hammers and High Heels is the name of the group of 200 women that helped build Sparks and her daughter their brand new home.
“Two-hundred of the volunteers were all women. The trades were men but it was built by women. So everything you see was done by women. So a lot of detail, a lot of patience, a lot of good positive energy,” Sparks said.
With house warming gifts in hand, everyone got to feel that energy when the group and Habitat for Humanity revealed Sparks’ new Largo home.
Barbara Morgan and Deanna D’abbraccio were volunteers who put in the time and sweat it took to build this home and they’re thrilled about the end product.
“I know I painted around that window and that column there and I did the saw fit on the other side. That was the first day but Deanna was doing the saw,” Morgan said.
“To work with the power tools was an interesting experience,” said D’abbraccio.
The women who helped build Sparks’ new home came from all over Pinellas County and built the home in just eight weeks.