Woman has own home, thanks to kindness of winter Texans

A first-ever partnership between two Aransas County organizations has turned 58-year-old Katherine Morris of Rockport into what she has never been before.
   On April 2, after signing her mortgage papers, Morris officially becomes a homeowner and receives the key to a two-bedroom, one-bath frame house that Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County and the Rockport Lions Club built.
   "I've rented all my life," said Morris, who has congestive heart failure and severe osteoporosis. "I love to plant flowers, but because I've never had my own home I've had to plant them in pots. I've always just moved place to place with my plants. I've never had anything that had roots in the ground.
   "Everyone kept telling me I wouldn't get my own home, but I took a chance and got it. Now I can have roots."
   Morris plans to share her home with her 15-year-old grandson, Chase Roth. The house, the first that the Aransas County Habitat group has built for a person with disabilities, is also the two groups' first home constructed with a Lions Club International Foundation grant.
   By collaborating, Habitat and the Lions Club were able to win a $24,000 grant from the foundation. Both groups then pitched in $5,000 each to clear the final financial hurdle.
   That cooperation, however, was just the beginning, said Linda Bechtol, public relations spokeswoman for Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County. From the first nail hammered to the last piece of siding installed, the entire Morris house project proved a valuable lesson on the virtues of teamwork.
   What would've taken seven months to build - which is how long it took the Habitat group to build its first home - took five weeks to complete.
   The credit, Bechtol said, belongs to Robert Hyneckeal, a winter Texan who during his stay in the Coastal Bend came across a public notice for a Habitat meeting and decided to attend. Hyneckeal not only signed up for the Morris home project at that meeting, he showed up for the construction work with fellow winter Texans in tow, volunteers he recruited from the same RV park where he and his wife were staying.
   Because he has built many Habitat homes in the past and served as a crew leader for an annual Habitat building blitz called the Jimmy Carter Work Project, Hyneckeal served as a crew leader for the Coastal Bend project.
   "Bob was like an angel to us," she said. "Without him as a construction crew leader we never would have completed the house in just five weeks. They took the project and completed it before we knew what was happening."
   In all, the crew worked Monday through Saturday, contributing a total of 1,080 hours, said Janice I. G. Watkins, Rockport Lions Club chairwoman.
   Hyneckeal alone recruited 40 volunteers, Watkins said.
   The collaboration proved so successful that the two groups are working to broaden that partnership to include two other Lions Clubs. Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County and the Rockport Lions Club hope to secure two more foundation grants to build two more homes for the disabled.
   The next home, Watkins said, will be built for a mother and daughter.
   "It was so wonderful to see everyone come together for a common goal," Watkins said. "We hope to build now on our proven success."