The Holloway family cannot hide their joy as they walk room to room in their new home. &uot;If there was such a thing as a person exploding, I would be in pieces everywhere,&uot; Carmen Holloway said, expressing her delight with the house built through the Habitat for Humanity program.

Today, at 2 p.m., Holloway and her two children, Kevin, 13, and Asia, 11, officially will receive the keys to their new home at 736 Smith Street. The public is invited to attend and celebrate with the family, said Duncan McFarlane, treasurer of the Natchez chapter of the organization.

&uot;Everyone is invited,&uot; McFarlane said.

&uot;We want people to come and look at the house. We’re pretty proud of the finished product, and we want people to see what a difference we’re going to make in that neighborhood. We have six more lots on Smith Street.&uot;

For now, the spotlight is on the Holloway home. For the past year, the new owner has been among the workers who started with the foundation and took the house up from there.

&uot;I’ve worked 175 hours altogether,&uot; said Holloway, who works full time at Walgreen’s in inventory control.

To complete the 250 hours required of new home recipients by the Habitat program, she will work on the next house, she said. &uot;I intend to work on all the houses in this neighborhood,&uot; she said.

The three-bedroom house features a kitchen with wooden cabinets and an island counter. &uot;There will not be another kitchen like this,&uot; Holloway said proudly. &uot;The special touches you see were brought in by Luther Cain, a member of my church. He put the design together and came in and did this in about two weeks.&uot;

When she looks around inside her house, she sees a blessing, Holloway said. She first learned about Habitat for Humanity through her sister, who was the recipient of the first Habitat house in Natchez.

&uot;We put sweat equity into that house, too, and I thought at the time, ‘Lord, this is how I’m going to get my house.’ It’s taken almost 10 years, but the long wait has paid off.&uot;

Once the motorized tools were removed from the construction area, she brought the children to help with small jobs they could handle, Holloway said. &uot;I know this has taught them something, to watch it come up from a concrete slab to this,&uot; she said. &uot;I drive them every day on moral and ethical standards. This has been a wonderful experience for them and for me.&uot;

Asia wants purple and lavender in her bedroom. One of her fifth-grade teachers at McLaurin Elementary School has volunteered to help her decorate it.

Kevin wants a place for his trophies and his trumpet. He has a keen interest in sports and in music. &uot;He has a natural ability to play and a natural ability to draw,&uot; Holloway said of her son.

McFarlane and his wife, Linda, have planted all the shrubs around the house. The Natchez Garden Club donated the shrubs.

A core group of about six people did the majority of the work on the house, McFarlane said. However, a total of 105 different people helped during the construction period.

Several groups came to help, including volunteers from the Isle of Capri, the Jefferson Street United Methodist Church youth group, Natchez Community Hospital and a group of eight college students from Quincy, Ill., who spent their spring break working on the house after driving 1,000 miles to help.

&uot;It’s like any volunteer effort,&uot; McFarlane said. &uot;It just makes you feel good. You get to know the home owner and get to meet the children. For some people it gets emotional at the dedication ceremony.&uot;

Many of the original organizers of the local Habitat chapter are still involved in its work, he said. They include Stanford Rayne and his wife, Helen Rayne, Danny O’Beirne and Connie Burns.

Andrew Calvit now serves as president of Habitat and is among active workers, McFarlane said. The Holloway house is the eighth built by the local chapter.

Habitat for Humanity home owners pay through their service, referred to as &uot;sweat equity,&uot; and then pay a no-profit, zero-interest

mortgage.

The Natchez chapter always is looking for donations, McFarlane said. Anyone wishing to contribute may mail the donation to Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 100, Natchez, MS 39121.