Construction progressing on Airdrie's 'Home for Hope'

Work is well underway on the 'Home for Hope' in Airdrie.

Groundbreaking took place on the one-of-a-kind home in August.

So what makes the house being built in Kings Heights so unique? Funds from the sale of the home will go to the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary and the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton.

Sam Iaquinta, General Manager for Castellano Custom Homes, says work on the home is coming along.

"Our interior and exterior design is complete at this point and now it's in the hands of our construction team. They've started work on it and we've very excited to see it grow out of the ground into the very first Home for Hope," says Iaquinta.

It's anticipated the home should be finished in July sometime, at which point there will be a grand opening ceremony for the community to check out the Home for Hope before it's put up for sale.

Iaquinta came up with the idea for the home after his own son became ill at two years old and spent a month receiving treatment at both the ACH and Stollery.

The plan is to donate funds from the sale of the home to support the partnership in the life-saving care and resuscitation improvement project at the ACH.

"We will be contributing to a program that video records live resuscitation of children in severe health consequence," says Iaquinta. "With those live recordings, of course with the permission of the parents, the hospital is going to be training hospital staff on how to resuscitate children properly that are in a dire position."

Meantime, Castellano Custom Homes is hosting the second annual Santa Claus Picture Giveaway this Saturday, December 14 at Save-On-Foods in Kings Heights.

Families can get a professional, high quality photo with Santa at no cost. However, donations for the Airdrie Food Bank will be collected.

Iaquinta says last year's event was very successful, with 350 Santa photos taken. He says he expects even more families to take advantage this year, which means the Airdrie Food Bank should benefit greatly.

"I think sometimes we certainly take things for granted, but unfortunately many people require the food bank and many other services that may not be available for them, so this is a small contribution that we can make to support Airdrie and support the communities that we work in," says Iaquinta.

Photos with Santa will be taken Saturday between 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.