Sometimes, it takes a village to build a house.

The extended community of Black Hills Area Habitat for Humanity finished doing just that for single mother Rhonda Ybanez on Thursday, as organization officials and volunteers turned over the keys to the 50th Habitat house built in the Black Hills.

Now, Ybanez and her three children will turn the solid, 24-by-48-foot structure at 1302 Wood Ave. into something more than a single-story collection of parts.

"Together, we built a house," Habitat board member and crew volunteer Terry Fuller said, as Ybanez wiped away tears. "And tonight, we get to do something really special. We give you the key, and you get to turn it into a home."

Ybanez began those duties almost immediately after the key ceremony, which also included a blessing and presentation of a variety of house-warming gifts. They included a full bookcase from the Altrusa Club, four quilts from the Calvary Lutheran Quilters, a stocked pantry and refrigerator from the Community Food Bank and grass seed and gardening tools from Master Gardeners.

There was a promise as well, delivered with a benediction from retired Methodist minister Earl Stucke, church-relations coordinator for habitat.

"We don't just put a family in a house and say, 'There you go,'" Stucke said. "We stick with you. We're interested in your future."

Ybanez, who works at Grimm Pump and Industrial Supply, now has a four-bedroom base for her family's future, courtesy of the extended village of the habitat organization, where nothing comes for free to people who get the houses. Like other habitat homeowners, Ybanez invested 200 hours of her own work, including 50 hours in classroom instruction on financial affairs and home management.

She also met and worked with other volunteers on other homes - something she intends to continue.

"It's nice to receive," she said. "But it's also nice to continue to give. And I'll do that."

That giving in return is what makes the Habitat system work so well, area executive director Scott Engmann said. The personal investment of time and labor and financial-skills development makes for better, more successful homeowners who can then repay the reduced-rate mortgage on their houses.

That money then is used for the construction of new houses that new families can turn into their own homes. This 50th home in the Black Hills area - so far mostly in Rapid City - is the fourth built through a matching program with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which provides 60 percent of the funding for the home. Local Lutheran churches add 15 percent, and Habitat for Humanity covers the rest.

Lutheran volunteers also join others in donating hours of work on the houses.

"It's a wonderful program. It gets all the Lutheran churches involved in actually volunteering to build, along with our Habitat volunteers," Engmann said. "We'll do two more here with Thrivent in 2008."

Habitat plans eight more houses in 2008, and is seeking to expand the homebuilding to Belle Fourche, Hill City, Hot Springs, Summerset and Custer, where one home has already been built.

The homes are built on three basic plans - including a three-bedroom, a four-bedroom like Ybanez's, and the less-common six-bedroom split level. They are designed to be easy for the variety of volunteers to construct and cost-effective for the new homeowners to maintain, Habitat project manager John Schencke said.

"They're simple, but they're nice houses," he said.

Ybanez said Thursday her house was simply perfect, as she thanked the many volunteers and supporters. She planned to begin moving in right away, and hoped to be settled by Saturday night, with each child in a bedroom for the first time.

With eyes that welled and spilled throughout the celebration, Ybanez said she couldn't thank all those who helped.

"There's so many people. I can't list everybody. But I prayed for everybody," she said. "I just have to thank Habitat and everybody who helped."

Many of the volunteers said they were privileged to help and to be there to celebrate on Thursday.

"It's wonderful. It's very exciting," the Rev. Bruce Thalacker, pastor of South Canyon Lutheran Church, said. "I have to think that this year, Rhonda will be singing, 'I'll be home for Christmas.'"

She will be, thanks to the village and her own hard work.

By the numbers:

Habitat for Humanity in South Dakota

* 42 - Homes completed statewide in 2007 - seven in the Black Hills area.

* 300 - Homes built statewide since inception, and more than 50 in the Black Hills

* $28.5 million - Value of Habitat homes throughout South Dakota - $5.5 million in the Black Hills area alone

* $18 million - Goods and services bought by Habitat affiliates to complete the construction of homes

* $126 million - Estimated direct impact of Habitat Homes on South Dakota's economy

* $1.65 million - Volunteer investment in local communities in South Dakota per year

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com