Home sweet home

In "It's a Wonderful Life," the house where Mary and George Bailey rear their family is like a character in the movie and "full of romance." The house's romance eventually includes their own. Many people feel their houses are part of the family.

Habitat for Humanity helps provide families with houses that are meant to become homes. They are homes because the families have helped build them, donating 250 hours of work. They are homes because the families own them.

The Cape Girardeau Area Habitat for Humanity, which has built 25 houses in the past 20 years, has set itself an ambitious goal for the next five years. The organization plans to build another 25 houses within that span. That will require an aggressive fund-raising campaign.

Dustin and Florita Runnels and their children Alexis and Allisen broke ground on the Cape area's 26th Habitat house Sunday. They have been helping build other Habitat houses up to this point. Now they can look forward to moving into their own home in March.