A Castle on Viola Street
By Dyanne DiSalvo A Social Action/Social Justice Story about Habitat for Humanity
Adapted by Cyn Fennelly
Source: Direct Experience
Spiritual Theme: yearning
Materials:
 Blue Underlay,
 One picture from the book
 Figures: Father, Mother, three children
 Laminated picture of a winter coat
 Laminated pictures of beautiful houses with yards, maybe from Habitat site
 Quarters
 Dollar bill
 Crusty wallpaper
 Scraper
 Hammer
 Nails
 Old bathtub
 Wooden kitchen cabinet
 Piece of wire
 sink
 Broken linoleum
 Dustpan and broom
 House
 Loose popsicle sticks
 House with glued on popsicle sticks
 Lemon
 Cups with a sip of lemonade in each one brought to circle ahead of time
 flier with “You Too Can Own Your Own Home” and picture of a house on it
 Basket with source symbol.
Presentation:
Now, watch carefully where I go to get the story so that later, if you wish to make it your
work, you will be able to find it. It is a different place. Maybe these stories are different.
Take out the underlay and smooth it out
Do you have any idea what this story might be about? What could the blue be? It could
be water or the sky ……. Let’s begin and see what this story is about.
Take out the picture from the book that shows the neighborhood, show it around
circle and lay on underlay.
A Castle on Viola Street
Spiritual Theme: Yearning
1
In the old days, before I was ten, we rented an apartment on Emerald Street. It was a
small place to live in for one whole family, but somehow we made the room. There
always seemed to be enough to go around, even with five people at our table.
Add the father onto the underlay. Add the laminated picture of a winter coat.
Every morning my father would get up even before the sun. "Someday things will
change around here," he would whisper to me. He usually said this during the winter
when the house was beginning to feel chilly. Then he’d kiss us good-bye, tuck up our
blankets, and leave for his job at the diner.
Place the mother and the three girls on the underlay.
My mother worked part-time in the downtown bakery while my sisters and I were at
school. After school she’d sit on the stoop and watch us play. Sometimes my mother
would flip through a magazine. She’d show me pictures of houses with gardens and
porches. They all looked like castles to me. I’d puff out my cheeks when I looked at our
place. It was old and peeling and sorry. That’s when my mother would hug me and say,
"Our family is rich in more ways than we can count."
Place the laminated picture of beautiful houses on the underlay.
On Saturday mornings my mother would weigh my pockets down with quarters for the
Laundromat. Then my mother would slip a dollar for a treat into my hand.
Place quarters and a dollar bill on the underlay.
Now, across the street from the Soap & Go were three boarded-up houses. My father
said it was a shame. "Somebody should do something about that," he’d say whenever
he saw them. So when a truck pulled up and workers unloaded equipment, I started to
pay attention.
Place a house on the underlay and lay 5 popsicle sticks on it.
"What’s going on over there?" a lady at the Soap & Go asked. Mr. Rivera pointed to a
flyer that was posted up front. "I’ll bet it has something to do with this," he told her. The
flier had a picture of a house and said YOU TOO CAN OWN A HOME. After our laundry
was dry and folded, I took my sister by the hand and rushed our wagon back to Emerald
Street.
Place the flyer on the underlay.
A Castle on Viola Street
Spiritual Theme: Yearning
2
At supper I told my parents what I had seen and gave them a copy of the flier. They
went to the meeting that it advertised. Later on, when my parents came home, they
were just as excited as I was. "This organization buys empty houses and fixes them up
like new!" said my mother. "Can we count on you to help?" I hugged them so tight I
almost fell out of bed. Well, you know how sometimes, when you never believe that
anything will ever be different, then one morning you just wake up and nothing is the
same?
Piece by piece, the inside of the first house came apart - one old bathtub, some
cabinets, sinks. Slats of wood and piping piled up like a mountain full of junk in the
dumpster.
Place an old bathtub, a wooden cabinet box, a piece of wire, sink, etc on the
underlay.
Most people on the block were happy about the project, but other people were not. The
lady next door said, "No banging before nine o’clock!" Some people laughed and said
out loud, "Who would want a house in a neighborhood like this?"
On the weekends, when our family showed up, a leader called out assignments.
"Everyone here will have a special job to do," she said. My mother scraped wallpaper
off crusty walls that crumbled like toast.
Lay crusty wallpaper on the underlay and a scraper.
My father and I worked together. He lifted up old linoleum tiles by sliding a cat-hammer
underneath. My job was to carefully hammer down nails on floorboards when he was
through.
Lay broken linoleum, a hammer and nails on the underlay.
Some volunteers, like us, hoped to have a house one day. "We’re looking forward to
living in a place that is so nice" Mr. and Mrs. Tran, who volunteered with us. My father
said he couldn’t wait to have a house like this one too.
My sisters were still to young to help with all the construction. But my mother told
them, "Being little is no excuse not to pitch in." She had them squeeze juice from bags
of lemons to make fresh lemonade. Then they took turns pouring and passing the cups
around.
Place a lemon the underlay. Pass everyone a sip of lemonade in a cup. Take time
to drink it.
A Castle on Viola Street
Spiritual Theme: Yearning
3
At the end of the day there was always a lot of sweeping to do. "I’ve never seen so much
dust in my life."
Place a dustpan and a broom on the underlay.
In those four months I learned a lot about putting things together. Once I even found a
piece of wood that my father said I could keep. I thought that maybe I could use it to
make something on my own.
Place the wood from the wood resource basket on the underlay.
One day Mr. Tran gave everyone some news. The new house would be theirs!
Take off the popsicle sticks on the house.
"Everything is beautiful," Mrs. Tran said. When the Tran family moved in, they threw a
potluck supper. My father and I took care to make something extra special that night.
Place a soup pot on the underlay.
Things were really changing on Viola Street now. Volunteers were working on two more
empty houses. Our family was soon told that we’d be working on our own house.
Whenever we pass it, my mother says, "I can imagine it finished already." I’ve already
got my bedroom picked out. It’s the one with the window by the yard.
Place another new house with popsicle sticks on the underlay.
It’s just as my father says: Big dreams are built little by little.
Wondering Questions:
 I wonder if you seen or heard any of this before?
 I wonder which part of this story is the most important?
 I wonder which part you like the best?
 I wonder where you might be in this story?
 I wonder if you have ever done the laundry?
 I wonder how it would feel to work with your parent building things?
 I wonder what was the same for this family as yours?
 I wonder what was different for this family from yours?
 I wonder what it feels like to wish for a new home?
 I wonder what it feels like to build a new home?
 I wonder what it feels like to have others help you build a new home?
 I wonder how it feels to have a new home?
A Castle on Viola Street
Spiritual Theme: Yearning
4

I wonder where the Spirit of Love and Mystery might be in this story?
Now watch how I put this story away, so that if you make it your work, you will be able
to get it ready for the next person.
Place each object back into the basket in reverse order, naming them as you go,
and then fold up the underlay and place on the basket before you take the basket
to the shelf.
Now watch where I go to put this basket away so that you will know where it is found in
the classroom.
Place basket on shelf.
A Castle on Viola Street
Spiritual Theme: Yearning
5