Methany Thornton, a middle school teacher from Marietta, received a fully furnished house from the iTHINK Community Foundation of iTHINK Financial. Thornton and her husband also received a $500 payout from the credit union Berkadia for any moving-in charges.
Thornton has been a social-emotional learning teacher at Marietta Middle School for almost six years. She also teaches cheerleading and lacrosse. Her family and she were living in Cartersville in a townhouse with no yard for the kids. Thornton and her family have moved to a larger home, and she is now only a few minutes from work.
After the initial shock and tour of the equipped rooms, the new owners declared the mansion is now a home for her and her husband, Kelcey, her daughter, and two grandkids.
“Thank you for all that you do in the community for people like me. You truly are God-sent, and I pray that as you continue to bless others, God will bless you even more,” Thornton expressed, according to WSBTV.
Several of Thornton’s classmates came to support her on the day of her dedication. She appreciates “paying it forward” as a teacher.
According to Jessica Gill, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of NW Metro Atlanta, the home dedication required a huge number of participants. She went on to suggest that relocating close to your place of employment is a “key component” of developing a community.
“It took a lot of partners to bring this accomplishment to fruition today. Living where you work is a key component in building community, and partnerships like this one are fundamental to making local homeownership achievable, as well as thanking the public servants who serve us and our children,” Gill remarked.
According to a Redfin research, the average schoolteacher in the United States can only afford to buy 12% of the homes for sale within a 20-minute commute of their school, down from 17% last year. According to research, the average public school teacher income in the United States is $66,74, and teacher salaries are not “keeping up with inflation and the rising cost of homeownership.”