THE HABITAT - Habitat for Humanity Canada

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Building Homes
with Hope
Genworth Financial Canada’s Meaning of Home
Contest Winner to Provide a Wellington County
Family with the Hand Up of Homeownership
ON JANUARY 25TH,
Genworth Financial
Canada (Genworth)
announced that
Grade 6 student
Karson Simpson
from Guelph,
Ontario was chosen as the winner of
this year’s Meaning of Home contest for
her exceptional essay that used poetic
language to compare a homeless teen
with one who has a comfortable home.
Karson’s submission was selected from
a record number of 2,400 entries received
from Grades 4, 5 and 6 students across
Canada, winning her the opportunity to
devote a $60,000 donation from Genworth
to the Canadian Habitat for Humanity
affiliate of her choice. Deciding that she
wanted to help a family from her own
community, Karson chose Habitat for
Humanity Wellington County to receive
the award.
As this year’s winner, Karson also
received a home computer for her own
use as well as a pizza party for her
entire school.
Karson is the 4th winner of the
Genworth Meaning of Home contest,
which was established in 2007 to raise
awareness among students of the
importance of having a home. Since its
inception, $357,000 has been donated
by Genworth to 23 Habitat for Humanity
affiliates in Canada. In addition to the
grand prize $60,000 donation, five
runners-up will get to devote $5,000
donations and 18 semi-finalists will get to
devote $500 donations to the Habitat for
Humanity affiliates of their choice.
“Genworth Financial Canada’s Meaning
of Home contest has once again effectively
engaged youth as advocates in Canada’s
affordable housing crisis,” said Stewart
Hardacre, President and CEO of Habitat
for Humanity Canada. “In addition, the
substantial financial support that has
come to Habitat for Humanity as a result
of the contest has helped provide several
Canadian families with the hand up of
homeownership, something that we
know will have a transformative impact
on these families and their communities
for generations to come.”
All winning essays from this year’s
contest can be viewed at Genworth’s
Meaning of Home website,
meaningofhome.ca.
“The quality of entries we received
again this year demonstrates the high
level of creativity and compassion found
in the younger generation,” said Peter
Vukanovich, Executive Vice President,
Corporate Development. “The Meaning of
Home contest empowers students from
across Canada to use the importance of
their words to give a family a home. We
would like to thank all of the entrants as
well as the many teachers who brought
this project to their classrooms.”
A Longstanding Habitat Partner
The Meaning of Home Contest is part
of a larger national partnership between
Habitat for Humanity Canada and
Genworth, the largest private sector
supplier of mortgage insurance in Canada.
The company has committed to a
three-year project called “The Path to
Home”, which will total more than
$1 million in support for Habitat for
Humanity’s affordable homebuilding
projects nationwide. In addition to
donations, Genworth is contributing
educational materials, volunteer hours
and expertise to local Habitat for
Humanity affiliates in Canada.
About Genworth Financial Canada:
Genworth Financial Canada, a subsidiary
of Genworth MI Canada Inc. (TSX:MIC),
has been the leading Canadian private
residential mortgage insurer since 1995.
Known as “The Homeownership Company”,
it provides default mortgage insurance
to Canadian residential mortgage lenders
that enables low down-payment borrowers
to own a home more affordably and stay
in their homes during difficult financial
times. Genworth Financial Canada
combines technological and service
excellence with risk management expertise
to deliver innovation to the mortgage
marketplace. As of September 30, 2010,
Genworth MI Canada had $5.3 billion in
total assets and $2.6 billion in shareholders’
equity. Based in Oakville, Ontario, the
Company employs approximately 265
people across Canada.
Hope by Karson Simpson
She opens her eyes slowly hoping, yet again, that maybe when they are fully open
she’ll be in a warm house, with a cozy bed and a fridge full of food. Instead she has
only two brick walls covered in graffiti— she knows as art, a ratty old sleeping bag
and a back pack for a pillow. She takes a deep breath and hopes for a good day.
She wants five more minutes but doesn’t have time. Time is all it takes to be alone.
A sliver of light creeps onto the walls of her brightly coloured room, as her
sister slowly opens her door. She rolls over in her warm bed, blankets still
wrapped around her, and opens her eyes. Her sister tells her she can get into the
shower and disappears into the dark hallways of the house. She gets up to the
shower five minutes later. As she steps into the steady stream of warm water,
she loses herself in her thoughts. As she steps out, she clears the mirror and looks
at her reflection — nothing ever changes in her life. She just stands there and
thinks, for a while. She has the time. Time is all she has.
She learns everything she needs to from her sister, at least that’s what her parents
tell her. She hopes more for herself, because she feels like she deserves it. She’s never
asked her parents for more than she already has. She knows her parents do the best
they can for her and her sister, but she can’t help thinking about more.
The wind whips through her hair as she walks to school with a friend. She
slowly takes out her headphones as the song on her iPod finishes its last chord
— All You Need Is Love; is love all you really need?
As her parents argue about what to do next, the rain beats down harder and her
stomach moans loudly; she’s starving. Her parents tell her and her sister to go to the
women’s shelter and the family will meet again tomorrow. Will they really be back?
She slowly walks upstairs leaving the family television alone till tomorrow. She
brushes her teeth then crawls into her bed. She lays there in the peaceful silence,
left alone; she’s swallowed up by the darkness of her non-existent room to venture
into her thoughts. What if I didn’t have my warm bed, my good food? What if I
had to work for everything I have and nothing was a privilege? What if I didn’t
have my carefully planned out routine I follow daily?
As she lies in the bed at the shelter she hears only the consistent breathing of her
sister bedside her and the careful cry of an infant off in the distance. She runs
through the thoughts in her head. What if I had a bed and food of my own? What
if I could go to school and learn? What if I had money to buy what I wanted? What
if I had my days planned? What if I had a warm home of my own? For right now
she can only hope for these things, but with hope the world is yours.
The next morning she wakes up and knows that if she didn’t have her home,
she wouldn’t have much of anything at all. She knows now she needs to love and
cherish what she has because not everyone has what she has — a home.
Read the runner-up winning entries online at meaningofhome.ca
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1. KARSON DEDICATING HER
WINNING CHEQUE TO HABITAT
FOR HUMANITY WELLINGTON
COUNTY, GUELPH, ON
2. MARGARET, VANCOUVER, BC
— RUNNER-UP
3. TYLER, EDMONTON, AB
— RUNNER-UP
4. SAMUEL, LONGUEUIL, QC
— RUNNER-UP
5. THE HABITAT HOME BUILT
WITH LAST YEAR’S MEANING
OF HOME DONATION,
ST. JOHN’S, NL
RUNNERS-UP NOT SHOWN:
LUCY, OAKVILLE, ON
KEVIN, ST. JOHN’S, NL
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14 THE HABITAT SPIRIT Spring/Summer 2011
To donate, participate or advocate visit www.habitat.ca 15