Ex-NFL star Warrick Dunn helps deliver 173rd home to single parent as part of his charity
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Former NFL running back Warren Dunn helped surprise a single Florida mother with a new home Wednesday through his charity along with Habitat for Humanity and health care company Cigna.
Warrick Dunn Charities, which is ran by the former Pro Bowler, presented LaToya Reedy with a new home in St. Petersburg. It was the 173 home the charity has given thanks to the “Home for the Holidays” campaign, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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The campaign helps single parents achieve homeownership and now Reedy is the latest recipient from Dunn. Reedy told the newspaper she had been working hard as a nursing assistant to provide a stable lifestyle for her 18-year-old son, but high rent prices and living paycheck to paycheck was getting difficult.
Reedy said the increased rent prices for her and her son to move into her mother’s house. She and her son shared one room and rotated sleeping on the bed, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Being a homeowner now, I can be at home,” she said. “I can be at peace. I can bring sweet memories to my house and I can have my family and my friends over. I have a home now, and that’s something that I’ve always wanted for my son, and for myself.”
Reedy also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help construct other homes. The charity work is required as part of Habitat for Humanity’s program prior to moving into the home.
Before Dunn became a professional football player, he was living with a single mother who worked her tail off to provide for him and five other children. Dunn’s mother was killed before his 18th birthday and he helped raised his siblings while playing college football.
He said he uses the program now as a form of therapy.
“I’ve used this program as therapy,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “Every time I hand over those keys there’s a little piece of my mom and the things she wanted.”