An Air Force vet wanted to help a family in need. He found a single mother, also an Army vet.
CAMDEN -- Things haven't been easy for Janne Dawson. The 27-year-old single mother got out of the service about five years ago and hasn't had a place to call her own in a very long time.
All that changed on Friday morning, thanks to a Gloucester County contractor, his band of volunteers and a Catholic charity looking out for military veterans like Dawson.
"I can turn my key and it's my home," Dawson, a 27-year-old who enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 19, said after seeing the completely renovated row home at the corner of Thurman and Louis streets for the first time.
Prior to this, Dawson and her 7-year-old son along with her sister, Geovanna Young, and her daughter, Ja'nyah Young, bounced around in search of something permanent. They were most recently staying at a cousin's place around the corner.
"I'm just blessed and thankful to have a house to call my home," the freshman at Dr. Charles E. Brimm Medical Art High School said standing at the landing of the flight of stairs up to the second floor.
The smell of fresh paint permeated the once boarded-up property Mullica Hill contractor Gary Smith, an U.S. Air Force vet of 12 years, bought in late 2014 for $8,400 off Bank of America.
"It probably had $80,000 in liens on it," said Smith, who said he couldn't have made this miracle happen without a half-dozen South Jersey painters, carpenters, electricians and corporate donations. "We were looking for a project home."
He sure found it.
Smith said the front door to the place kicked in, it was coated in graffiti and "barely four walls." The $50,000 to $60,000 in rehab work -- all of it in donated time and materials -- took months. Still, he always wanted to fix up a home for a deserving family and turned to faith leaders to help him on that journey.
Dawson was eventually identified through Catholic Charities of Camden's federally-funded veterans program, said senior case manager Randall Clark.
Blessings in the process came in bits and pieces.
A dilapidated drug stash around literally around the corner from Dawson's new place was torn down three months after Smith bought the property -- and he couldn't have been happier.
The neighbors are on board with the project and Smith, with help from New Jersey Community Capital, hopes to acquire more vacant homes for the same end as this one.
The most blessed of all, however, was Dawson, who was openly overwhelmed by what's now her front door, her living room, her bedroom and -- her favorite -- the kitchen.
"I took two steps forward and God pushed me five steps forward."
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.