President Jimmy Carter's legacy still stands in Philadelphia homes
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Decades after he visited one neighborhood in Philadelphia, Jimmy Carter's work is still having a lasting impact.
The former president died on Sunday at the age of 100. Since then, tributes and memories have been pouring in.
People who he helped in Philadelphia are also reflecting on the difference he made in their lives.
"The Carters went around and, you know, helped build the homes for low-income people," said Illona Johnson of President Carter and his wife First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
The two spent much of their lives focused on service to others, including a dedication to Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that builds and repairs homes for people in need.
Johnson lives in one of the North Philadelphia houses that Carter helped build in 1988.
"I was so happy I didn't know what to do," Johnson says of the moment she moved into the home in 1994.
The first five row homes in the 1900 block of West Wilt Street in North Philadelphia were part of the 1988 Carter Work Project.
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Action News was there to cover the story as the former president and former first lady worked alongside other habitat volunteers.
Habitat for Humanity CEO Corinne O'Connell says the Carters were determined to put in actual work on the sites. They weren't there for the photo ops.
"Swinging a hammer. Wanting to do the work," said O'Connell. "Less talk, more work."
She added that Carter's work visit infused energy into what was then a new organization.
"(It) put us on the map! Absolutely," she said of the 1988 event.
Two years later - in 1990 - Carter was back in Philadelphia to receive the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center.
Carter's last visit to Philadelphia was in 2015. He signed copies of his book at the Central Library on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Always humble and faithful, Carter insisted on serving others, including by helping to build homes.
"We've never been on a Habitat project that we didn't get more out of it than we put into it," Carter said as he paused his work, one of those projects to address questions from reporters.
For Johnson, it's meant having a safe home for more than three decades. She's proud that her home was built, in part, by a president.
"He was about doing things for people,' she said.
