Some people are memorable from the moment you meet them. Ashley Sloan is one of those people. When Ashley speaks she is animated, happy and excited. She has a way of instantly connecting the listener to her and this is her story as she told me.
Ashley was born and raised in Kemptville. After high school she left home to attend Northern College in Haileybury, Ontario. Soon after that she met her first real love and they decided to settle down and have a family. A daughter Khalan and a son Gryphon made the household complete. Life was good for Ashley until the man she loved decided that he needed to end the relationship and Ashley was broken hearted. Not only was she struggling with her loss but now the gravity of her situation as a single mom looking after her two young children without any other help was hitting home. Life couldn’t be much lower.
Ashley Sloan and her partner Bill Beach
The expression, “When times get tough, the tough get going” could have been Ashley’s motto. Ashley knew she needed to support her family and also pay off her student loan. She looked for accommodation in the Oxford Mills area as it was less expensive than Kemptville and obtained employment close by. She even decided to give back to her community by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands.
The year was 2010 and Ashley became a volunteer in the Kemptville Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands Restore and from there Ashley graduated to Volunteer Coordinator for a build that was taking place in Kemptville.
That is where she met Christine, the homeowner of the Kemptville build. The two became fast friends and their two daughters also became friends that have lasted until today. Christine inspired Ashley and Ashley thought, “If she can do it so can I” and she applied to become a future homeowner as well.
Let’s fast forward to 2016, and Ashley is volunteering on a new kind of build. This one is a home that was moved to a property in Oxford Mills. The land which was donated to Habitat for Humanity needed to have septic and sewer and then the home was placed on a foundation and backfilled around it. Little did Ashley know that this was to be her own home. There she was cheerfully painting and cleaning the home that would be hers very soon and in 2017 she and her family moved in.
Somehow the word got out that Ashley was the new home owner and while she was working at the local Walmart she was approached by a customer that asked her if he could contribute to her home and donated a snowblower with a tarp, snow shovels, gas can and an extension cord to her to help with the sometimes difficult winters we can experience.
How wonderful a gesture is that? Ashley was deeply touched and accepted his gifts with much gratitude.
Ashley beams when she talks about the Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands Community and of where she and her family are today because of it. Ashley has become a community spokesperson for Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands dispelling myths about Habitat giving away homes. She is proud to say that she is paying her own mortgage each month and explains that she had to give 500 hours of volunteer labour towards the build. Nothing was freely given to her.
“They gave me a hand up, not a hand out. I needed the help and they helped me help myself.”
Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Greater Ottawa will be building a 15 unit stacked townhouse complex in the fall of 2022 in Kemptville. That means that 15 families will be able to own their own homes.
Your donations of time, money, furniture, appliances and building materials are making the dream of home ownership a reality. Please consider a gift to Habitat for Humanity to make a very real and positive difference in another family’s life because everyone deserves a decent place to live.