Ground was broken for the barrier-free home on Monday (April 30). The footings and frost wall for the insulated walls have already been poured.
Construction was initially expected to get underway after lobster fishing season, but Roy Hogan, chair of the Tignish Special Needs Housing 2011 Committee, said several contractors have offered to assist with the project and they wanted to get moving before their busy season arrives.
In addition to offers of labour, materials and services, numerous fund-raising activities and special events were organized to assist the LeClair family with construction costs.
Bobbi-Jo, who will turn 18 in June, was seriously injured in an October 2010 car crash.
Since last fall, except for a Christmas break in Tignish, she has been a patient at the Stan Cassidy rehabilitation Centre in Fredericton where she continues to show progress.
She communicates extensively with a computer program and through Facebook.
"Getting so excited," she wrote recently in response to photos of the early stages of construction.
A surgery meant to improve mobility in her legs was supposed to happen last week. It has been rescheduled to May 11.
"She's a fighter and she's going, going. She's not giving up," her mother, Donna, says proudly. "She says she's walking. You ask her what this surgery's for and it's to make her walk."
A brief period of recovery will be required after surgery and then her daughter will get right back to the hard work of therapy, Donna said.
"She's just moving ahead all the time. They're all amazed with what's she doing."
Her feeding tube has been removed and she is able to eat any foods that can be pureed.
"I want lobster," she wrote when she learned her mother was heading back over on Saturday.
It is anticipated Bobbi-Jo will be coming home for the summer, at least, around the end of June.
The logistics of where she will stay until the new house is ready have not been finalized.
The LeClairs express gratitude to the many individuals, businesses and groups who have supported and encouraged them over the past 19 months.
Hogan said the committee is overwhelmed by the support their fundraising campaign has generated, and by the many groups that volunteered to help with the cause.
"We hope, by the time we're done, to have not too big of a mortgage," he said.
Journal Pioneer
