Saturday was full of mixed emotions for Sandtown Habitat for Humanity members as they celebrated another homeowner's new beginning while mourning the loss of one of their leaders.
Allan Tibbels, who died Thursday of multiple organ failure, was the co-executive director and the force behind Sandtown Habitat for Humanity, which held its 278th ribbon-cutting, this time for new homeowner Diane Stewart.
About 40 volunteers in T-shirts and ripped jeans with paint splatter, current Habitat homeowners and members of Stewart's family poured out into one lane of Fulton Avenue, in front of the Formstone home with a purple front door, for the first ceremony since Tibbels' death.
"This is difficult" began LaVerne Stokes, the co-executive director, as her eyes filled with tears. Tibbels "was a fearless leader. We will continue on, but no one can fill his shoes."
Tibbels, 55 and a quadriplegic, left a life on a quiet suburban plot of land in Howard County a quarter-century ago to help build the nearly 300 houses in one of the city's most blighted areas. In exchange for the Clarksville property, Tibbels moved into a burned-out shell of a Baltimore home with his wife and two daughters in 1986.
He was a founder and elder in the Presbyterian Church in America's New Song Community Church at 1601 N. Calhoun St., just a few blocks from Stewart's new Habitat home.
"We are committed to continuing his legacy," said Michael Barb, resource development manager and volunteer coordinator with the Habitat program. "We miss him dearly. We continue to do the things he would want us to be doing."
Indeed, the work does go on.
The program targets a 15-square-block area in West Baltimore that had about 350 abandoned homes in the late 1980s. The group plans to have the 300th house completed this fall.
"We are part of a larger holistic effort" in Sandtown, Barb said. "Transition happens on a daily basis," he said.
As the group of eager volunteers met and prayed in the afternoon drizzle, Stewart was handed her first set of keys to the house, which underwent a major transformation over the past three months, from four walls barely standing to a home.
Volunteers rebuilt from nothing except the exterior walls, said Kevin Mills, a member of the construction staff who oversaw the other builders.
He said the biggest challenge was rebuilding the first floor — "that's the hardest part. Once you get that, it all falls into place."
But even with that major hurdle long behind them, he said the past week has been difficult.
Tibbels' death "slowed us down," Mills said, but, "I know Allan Tibbels doesn't want us to stop."
Stewart's new home, with a custom purple front door picked out by her 4-year-old daughter, Jalah, still smelled like the new beige wall-to-wall carpet.
But, of the three-story two-bedroom home, Stewart said her favorite part is the pine deck in the back, which she plans to furnish as well for "partying — having cookouts."
Stewart said she too knew Tibbels and that without the program she would not own her first home.
"I am 23 and I have my first house," she said. "I'm happy. I just want to thank everybody. … I just want to thank Allan," she said to the crowd.