Shasta’s home under way
A community effort to build a house for the lone survivor of one of the Coeur d’Alene area’s most notorious crimes reached a milestone Tuesday morning.
More than 50 people who have donated time and money to the project gathered at the site of Shasta Groene’s future home in Coeur d’Alene to watch the groundbreaking ceremony.
“This is huge. We’re on phase two of Shasta’s house,” project organizer Midge Smock of Windermere Coeur d’Alene Realty told the crowd. “We still need money to pay for this lot, so send your money to Windermere.”
Smock and other supporters have raised about $50,000 and need about $85,000 more to cover the cost of the lot, property taxes and building permits.
They expect the house to be furnished and ready for Shasta to move into by July 4. Site excavation began Tuesday.
The girl was 8 when she and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, were kidnapped from their home in Wolf Lodge Bay after Joseph Duncan murdered their older brother, mother and mother’s boyfriend in May 2005. Dylan’s remains were found in a remote campground in the Montana wilderness.
The 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home will be held in a trust for Shasta, now 10, until she turns 25.
The house will include a playroom and fenced backyard.
The fundraising effort began last September after Shasta’s father, Steve Groene, told Smock that his daughter needed a home.
“He said, ‘You know, we’re homeless,’ ” Smock recalled. “I said, ‘What?’ I was shocked, totally shocked. I just couldn’t believe that our Shasta, who’s gone through layer after layer of horror, doesn’t have a home.”
The house site is within the attendance zone for Fernan Elementary School, where Shasta will be in fifth grade next year.
“This has been an amazing project,” said Todd Stam, owner of Aspen Homes and Development. Stam is managing the construction part of the project and Smock the fundraising, though the two often overlap.
Fred Glisson, owner of Riverstone Stamp Concrete, said the project has so much support from the community that construction business representatives are practically tripping over each other to offer their help.
“The whole community really stepped forward,” he said.
A fundraising car wash was held this past weekend, and a dinner and auction called Shasta Fiesta is scheduled for May 5 at the Coeur d’Alene Inn.
Mayor Sandi Bloem, who cut a ribbon on the site with Smock and City Councilman Ron Edinger, said she isn’t surprised at how quickly the project has come together.
“It’s what the community does,” Bloem said.