PARIS – Housing leaders and political aides were on hand for a celebration last week of the successful completion of the 100th home built under Community Concepts’ Self-Help Home Ownership Program.

The event at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School drew representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, as well as from the Maine State Housing Authority and Rural Development.

Diane Jackson of Snowe’s office said the senator strongly supports the self-help program, which was established in 1991.

A letter from Snowe read, in part: “I am pleased to support the partnership of USDA Rural Development and Community Concepts’ efforts in making the American dream of home ownership a reality.”

Under the program, families who want to be homeowners form a home builders association.

With the technical assistance of the housing staff at Community Concepts, the families learn construction skills and work together to build the homes. Each family works 2 days each week for nine to 10 months, working on all the houses. Once all the homes are completed, the families can move in.

“What a fantastic milestone! We congratulate Community Concepts and these families on their success,” said Tim Trafford, representing Michaud. “The self-help program combines two fundamental Maine values – hard work and community support.”

Community Concepts displayed photo essays of each home-ownership group and showed a video retrospective of the program throughout the years.

The event’s keynote speaker was Peter Thomas, associate administrator of USDA Rural Development in Washington. He talked about the importance of home ownership in rural areas, saying that participants in the self-help program “not only build a home, they build a future, and through that, self-esteem. What we are really building are communities.”

More information about the self-help housing program may be obtained by phoning Community Concepts in South Paris at 743-7716.