While many people this month scramble to check off items on their long Christmas gift lists, one Naples family is hoping for only one thing this holiday season: a home to live in.
Coming back from a Special Olympics event at Sugarloaf in January, Jon and Shirley Edwards and their four children found themselves homeless after a fire gutted their house on Gore Road. Jon, who ran his business from home, lost everything.
Their insurance company gave them a temporary trailer to live in, which is located on the same lot, but Jon said his family has until January 2007 before the trailer is taken away. Jon said one of the contractors he hired to rebuild their home did not complete the work and took off with their money. The Edwards have since filed a lawsuit against the contractor, but neither the contractor nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.
“I’ve heard of streaks of bad luck,” Jon said. “But this is something else. It’s really having an impact on my family.”
Now, in a race against time and the onset of a Maine winter, the Edwards are relying on people like Nick Hutchins, Beth Hodgdon and Rick Fritz, independent builders who are donating time and material to complete the house before the family is left with no place to live.
“We’re at the rough-end stage of the building process,” Fritz said. “Everything has to now fall into place perfectly.”
Most importantly, Fritz said, the new home needs a heating system, and if it is not installed soon, the structural integrity of the house, especially the foundation, will be jeopardized.
“A home cannot be put through that kind of strain, and we need to get this family inside… they can’t be forced to live in a tent this winter,” he said.
Some of the many items the Edwards still need include insulation, a kitchen sink and appliances, lumber, an electric stove, doors and lighting.
Shirley Edwards, who said she is hurting because she cannot provide for her children as she wants to, is doing everything she can to hold her family together. Suffering from degenerative bone disease, Shirley also has to look after her 22-year-old son, Joey, who is autistic.
“It’s so hard because we’ve never had to ask for help before,” she said. “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in… well, I don’t remember.”
Shirley said her children have taken the situation very hard, including their 14-year-old son, Jonathan Jr., who said for Christmas he only wished for a home to live in and a family that was happy again.
Jon and Shirley’s 19-year-old son, Lane, who is enrolled in Future Builders Inc., is receiving school credit by building a shed near their incomplete home.
“That program has really helped him gain back more confidence and it’s keeping him busy,” Shirley said. “It’s kept him focused instead of having his mind on what’s been happening to this family.”
Shirley’s good friend and neighbor, Michelle Jameson, implores the community to reach out to the Edwards and help. “There are an awful lot of contractors in the area,” she said. “All they need to do is donate some time. It’s supposed to be Christmas.”
The Edwards are reaching out to everyone, including Billi Lynn Burke, a broker for 207Realty.com in Naples, who is running a program that donates Christmas presents for families in need.
“It’s been a very hard year for everyone,” she said. “We just need to get the word out there. If someone knows a family who needs help this holiday, we would like to get in touch with them. This is something we want to do, that we need to do.”
Jon, who said this has been one of the hardest times in his life, said he and his family are relying on hope more than ever this Christmas.
“This whole thing has been tearing us apart,” he said. “We’re really asking for a miracle.”
For those who can donate time or material to help the Edwards build their home this Christmas, please call 693-3925. Billi Lynn Burke can be reached at 693-4663.
Trouble with contractors has slowed construction of the new home being built by the Edwards family to replace the one lost in a propane explosion last January. Now the insurance company wants to take away the mobile home that John and Shirley, and sons Joe, 23, Layne, 19, and JR, 14, have been living in, even though there is a lot of work still to be done. 
Jon and Shirley Edwards
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