Ex-Buc Dunn helps first-time homeowners in Pasco

Elois Adams walked to work in the rain to provide for her children.

Under an unrelenting sun this morning, Adams burst into tears.

Outside a car Adams exited on Taylor Avenue was Warrick Dunn, the civic-minded former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star, who is possibly as well known locally for his off-the-field work to help single-parent households achieve the dream of home ownership as for the yardage he amassed as an undersized running back in the National Football League.

Adams, her daughter, Ebony Adams, 27, and Adams' grandson, Frederick Adams Jr., 4, were among three families to receive $5,000 first-home down payments through Homes for the Holidays, a program of the Warrick Dunn Foundation.

"I was not expecting all of this," Elois Adams said as she exited the car and saw a throng of Habitat for Humanity of East & Central Pasco volunteers, representatives with Aaron's Inc. and television cameras. "I knew I'd be a home owner, but I didn't know I'd be coming to this. God is good."

Dunn started the program in 1997 during his rookie season in the NFL to honor his late mother, Betty Smothers, a mother of six who dreamt of owning her own home.

Home decor and furnishings for the three Habitat for Humanity homes unveiled today were provided by Aaron's.

"As I look back on the past and the so-called houses and so-called apartments we lived in, this is truly a blessing," Ebony Adams said.

Across the street from the Adamses', Christina Clare was given the keys to her new home by Dunn.

A single mother of two girls - Jazmin Vallejo, 7, and Kadence Vallejo, 6 - Clare uncorked a loud, "Ahh!" as she stepped inside the front door of her new house for the first time.

Looking around her new bedroom, Kadence obviously approved of the motif.

"I love piggies!" she said.

Each of the three homes was completely furnished, with food in the cabinets, new appliances, even lawn equipment.

John Finnerty, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of East & Central Pasco, said the Taylor Avenue lots were once the site of a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp.

On nearby Eighth Street, Dunn gave Mary Salazar the keys to her new home. Finnerty said that property once held three, 165-foot-long warehouses where migrant farm workers lived. There were only two toilets.

"It was pretty primitive living," Finnerty said.

Now, only a portion of one warehouse remains as a storage shed.

Salazar, a single mother of five children ages 14 to 5, also wept upon seeing Dunn.

After retiring from the NFL in 2008, Dunn became a limited partner in the Atlanta Falcons this year. He has often said that he was inspired to help others by his late mother, a former police officer who was killed in 1993.

"I was talking to my grandmother today," he said. "She said (my mom) would be proud."

Dunn's foundation and its sponsors and donors have now helped 97 single parents and 260 children and dependents around Atlanta, Baton Rouge, La., Tallahassee and several areas in and around Tampa.

Elois Adams was effusive in her praise of the foundation.

"Every room in this house that I walk through, I'm going to think about Warrick Dunn," she said. "Hallelujah!"