Homes To Honor Va. Tech Victim

Since her death last year, Erin Peterson has been showered with honors. Her high school basketball team created an award in her memory. The private school she attended through eighth grade named its gym after her. A foundation set up in her name has granted thousands in scholarships.

Now comes another tribute to Peterson, who was killed along with 31 others in the April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. A small housing development for low-income families in St. Louis, a village near Middleburg, will likely bear the name of Peterson, who had aspired to help people displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

"She was very concerned about what happened to the people with Katrina. She had wanted to go down there and help the people," said her mother, Celeste Peterson. "She didn't like the spotlight to be on her, but . . . I think she really would have loved this."

The five-house subdivision is being planned by Loudoun Habitat for Humanity, which bought the five-acre parcel earlier this year and has yet to obtain all the permits from the county.

It is the second such project in St. Louis, a tiny, historically black hamlet. Habitat is completing construction on its first five-house subdivision, across from Banneker Elementary School. Three of the houses have been built and have occupants.

That subdivision is named for Mary Jane Jackson, a prominent local figure who was instrumental in getting the subdivision built.

Bud Green, head of construction for the group, said Habitat decided to name the second subdivision for Erin Peterson, 18, because of her roots in the community. Although she grew up in Centreville, her maternal grandparents live in Purcellville and her father grew up in St. Louis, where his father lives.

"It all made sense," Green said. "Once we started talking about it, it all kind of flowed together."

Like the houses in the Jackson subdivision, the ones in Peterson's development would be modest, Green said. Those built are 900 to 1,300 square feet. They are being built to high environmental standards, he said.

Habitat does not give away the houses. Rather, they are sold to pre-selected families who do not earn enough to buy a house on the open market. To be eligible, the families must participate in the planning and construction of the houses. They are then granted no-interest housing loans at below-market rates.

The program prevents the families from quickly reselling the houses at a high profit.

The houses are blessings for the families that receive them, said Gamil M. Mosleh, who with his wife and four children moved into one in the Jackson subdivision. The family previously had lived in a rented house in Leesburg.

"We waited four years altogether, but it was worth it," said Mosleh, 50, a bus and taxi driver whose children are 13 to 22. "It's a great gift from God."

Peterson, a Christian, was always helping people, her mother said. After her death, there came an outpouring of support from friends and acquaintances who said she had been an inspiration and had made a positive impact on their lives, Celeste Peterson said.

"Erin knew a lot of people -- I mean, a lot of people -- and everyone said she touched people's lives," she said. "It's really been amazing."

Peterson established the Erin Peterson Fund to continue her daughter's legacy. She said the organization offers scholarships and donates money to a program that supports young minority men.