“Winter always turns
to spring and I think I’m in my spring time now.”
-Diane Chambers, Future Habitat Homeowner -
Diane Chambers might be retired, but in her quiet way she
clearly makes a difference in the lives of those who meet her.
A former special education teacher at Christopher Columbus
High School in the Bronx, New York, Diane came to this area about 14 years ago
for a new business venture. Her
partner turned out to be unethical and Diane lost everything!
She ended up living in Burlington City in a neighborhood
filled with garbage and drug traffic.
“It was like waking up in a nightmare,” she told me. Although Diane will soon be moving into
a new home built by Habitat for Humanity, she has worked hard to transform her
circumstances over the past 14 years.
As an SGI Buddhist Member, she set an intention to change
her neighborhood. She began to go
to town council meetings and got to know the police, mayor and town council
members.
Quietly, she started to clean up the street. Brooms and trash bags appeared. Her theory was that if there was already
litter on the street, residents would continue to litter. However, if the street looked clean,
they would think twice about throwing their trash on the ground.
A lifetime crafter, she began to bring her crafts out onto
the street and share them with the neighborhood children. She purchased jump ropes for them and
established a rule that everything had to be left on her doorstep when the kids
were done playing. And it always
was!
She bought lumber and with the help of others in the
community, taught the kids how to build plant holders in which they planted
flowers in their neighborhood. She also showed them how to make wreaths for
Mother’s Day.
She decided to have a block party and she invited all of her
new friends from city hall! Slowly,
the composition and appearance of the neighborhood began to change for the
better. Her nickname became “NARC.”
“As I was reinventing myself, it was my intention to
encourage the people around me and many times I won. Your environment reflects you. I like it quiet and now the neighborhood is quiet.”
Currently a participant in Habitat’s Affordable Homeownership Program, Diane will spend 250 hours working at the Habitat ReStore,
participating in building her own home as well as the homes of others and
attending homeowner preparation classes.
She calls herself a “thrift shop junkie” and enjoys working
in the ReStore, where she can organize all of the items in the store and have
fun interacting with customers as well as Habitat workers and volunteers.
Diane is looking forward to moving into her Habitat home in
the coming months, but she told me it’s bittersweet because she’ll miss the
rich history she’s come to appreciate living in Burlington City. As she began to speak of
the town elders and how most people don’t realize that Burlington City was part
of the Underground Railroad, I quickly grabbed my iPhone and captured Diane
giving an impromptu history lesson.
As we concluded our discussion, Diane said, “You’ll have
good and bad times in your life.
You have to learn to be happy in both. I’m just enjoying life.”
