The recipients of the Champion of Character Award are Melody Congdon and her Makeover Team, including Ken Mahner, Roger Ozias and Michael Starr.   

For the last two years, Melody Congdon has headed a makeover team that fixes up apartments and homes for low income families.  This project began when two families displaced by Hurricane Katrina re-located to Topeka.  With help from members of her church, Topeka Bible Church, Congdon has been painting and furnishing homes at no charge for those in need. Also receiving certificates will be three staff members, Ken Mahner, Roger Ozias and Michael Starr, who haul furniture for the efforts. The rest of the makeover teams are selected based on their interest in the families and include so many people, that we cannot mention them all here.  

Recently, the team furnished a home purchased by the Garcia family.  The family had been living in a garage and the kids were sleeping on the floor.  The only sink was a utility sink in the garage.  They had no furniture to put in the new house. 

The make-over team was able to furnish the family with a TV-VCR in an entertainment center, a kitchen table and chairs and other furniture.  Similar to the TV program, Extreme Makeover, the team decorates the home in ways to specially meet the needs of the family.

For example, the boys in the Garcia family loved cars and the team found racing flags from Heartland Park to put on the walls along with beds and bedspreads to match the flags.  The little girl’s room was decorated in pink for a "Little Princess" room.
Paint that was donated was mixed to create a Periwinkle color to match a floral design queen bedspread that was donated. "It is amazing how items donated by the community match the specific desires of the families they serve," stated Congdon.

Sometimes the need may be emotional as well as financial.  The team did a makeover for Elizabeth Heyroth and her baby son, who lost her husband in a canoe accident in Topeka several months ago.