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Dunn Runs To The Aid Of Family

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By LINDSAY PETERSON

lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 8, 2008

TAMPA - Joilee Hazley wondered what all the people were doing in her front yard.

It wasn't actually hers yet. But she was preparing for the closing, meeting her mortgage broker that day for a final inspection. So who where all these strangers?

A woman stepped up to Hazley's car and opened the door. In the background, Hazley saw Tampa Bay Bucs running back Warrick Dunn and her knees got weak.

It was all a set-up. Hazley had been lured to the house near West Tampa so Dunn and his helpers could surprise her with the news. Dunn's program, Homes for the Holidays, was giving her $5,000 for her down payment. Volunteers had also filled her new house with furniture and accessories.

Since 1997, Dunn has helped 81 families move into new homes, providing the furnishings and the down payment. Starting in Tampa, he's expanded the program to his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., Atlanta, Ga., and Tallahassee.

He surprised three mothers, including Hazley, for Mother's Day this year. And he plans to surprise another group before Christmas.

Dunn created the program as a way to remember his mother, Betty Smothers, a Baton Rouge police corporal who was shot and killed in 1993 while working her second job as a grocery store security guard.

He tells the story of her death and his efforts to raise his five brothers and sisters in his new memoir, "Running for My Life."

"If anyone really knows me, and knows about my life, my mom was my best friend," Dunn said in May. "She meant everything to me in this world. To be able to live out her legacy, I'm just really honored."

Seeing Dunn in her front yard took Hazley's words away. "I got very emotional," she said. "My boys and I are big sports fans. We love football. We had prayed for him and discussed him at home. So for him to do this for us was unbelievable. And being a mom, to know how much he honored his mother, that just added so many layers to this."

To qualify for help from Dunn's program, parents must have participated in a not-for-profit affordable homeownership program. Their selection is based on their need and their commitment to becoming financially stable and independent.

Hazley went through the City of Tampa's program for first-time homebuyers. Her mortgage broker nominated her.

She started her search for a new house in 2005 and took three years to find what she was looking for. She wanted to be near South Tampa's Plant High School, for her two sons, Nick, 16, and Caleb, 14. But real estate in that area is costly and she needed something she could afford on her pay as an educator in the Busch Gardens zoo department. She found it just north of Kennedy Boulevard.

Before the closing, her mortgage broker told her they needed to walk through the house one last time before signing the papers. She'd never been through a closing before, so she didn't question him.

"I didn't have a clue what was going on," until she saw Dunn, she said. Then she saw her brother and her sons. "It was so overwhelming. ... I wasn't prepared for what all they do."

She opened the door to her new house to find it fully furnished, down to the kitchen drawers. "They thought of everything, lawn mower, garbage can, lawn tools. ... There was food in the refrigerators, food in the cupboards." There was even a pie on the counter, apple, under a glass cover. And hanging from the oven was an embroidered dish towel that said "Joilee's kitchen."

"It was sort of a surreal day," Hazley said.

She and her sons talk about it still. And when they watch Dunn play football, they feel as though they're watching a friend. When he gets tackled, they get mad, she said. "It's like, 'OK, now get off of him.'"

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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