OXFORD – They’ve watched each year as the little house in Oxford, where so much love exists, became more and more run down.

For over a decade, the Senior High Sunday School and Youth Group at the Second Congregational Church in Norway have delivered holiday food baskets to the family that lives there – a mother in her 80s, a daughter about 50, and a son in his early 60s. The father died about six years ago.

Despite living on a fixed income, having no indoor plumbing, and a home that’s deteriorating, the family has taught the kids plenty about love, and the ties that bind.

“They are a very deserving family. The love they show to each other and everyone else is just amazing,” said Kate Franklin, a senior at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

When the kids come, the family and the kids pray together. And sing together.

The family keeps the house as neat as a pin. They love to do puzzles, plant their garden, and listen to the signs of the seasons. The mother writes in her journal every night.

When Franklin and Becky Ladner, also a senior and part of the youth group, left a food basket there last Christmas, they left in tears. The pipes had frozen. There was no running water. The heating system had failed.

Worst of all, the main part of the house had begun to seriously pull away from the kitchen, threatening a collapse.

“The kids just realized the house wasn’t staying the same. It just wasn’t going to last,” said Laura Gouin, former church youth group advisor. It was Gouin who first got the kids and the family together by delivering goods from a local food pantry. “Immediately a bond was formed,” Gouin said. “They love the children coming. That means so much to them.”

Ladner and Franklin decided to help get the family a new home. When they proposed the idea to the rest of the Sunday School class, the reaction was immediate. Let’s do it, they said.

They asked the family, with a little trepidation, if it would be OK to help them. Patty Thomas, who knows the family well, said the family “absolutely adores the kids from the church. They love them very much. And they never ask for anything.”

Thomas said, “I don’t know if they would have said yes, if it had been anybody else but the group of kids from the church. They got to see these kids grow up – they love them as their family.”

Enter John Schiavi.

When approached, Schiavi agreed to donate a used 14-foot-by-70-foot, two bedroom mobile home and help set it up on the property. The 1970 Young American trailer is still in pretty good shape, but needs a roof, some windows and a new door.

The biggest expense is a concrete slab – about $3,000. Around $800 in donations have been received and the kids are seeking donations of materials and labor.

They want the trailer to be in place by June.

“It has to happen. And we’re willing to make it happen,” said Franklin.

“I wanted to do something really good for them before I got out of high school,” added Ladner.

It’s not work, really, said Franklin. It’s a labor of love.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” she said, “because you know you are helping a family in need – and they are a great family.”

“They are the most deserving family that I know,” said Thomas.

A May 3 fund-raising supper is planned at the church. Donations of money may be sent to Second Congregational Church, 205 Main St., Norway, 04268. To help with the project in any way, call Pam Davison, Senior High Sunday School teacher at 674-2589, home, or 783-9141, ext. 210, work; Debra Ladner, Christian Education director, 743-7698; or the church’s minister, Reb. Elaine Tullis, at 743-2290.