HUD Buffalo Office Director Stephen T. Banko III and 2009 FSS Shining Star recipient Carmelita Lee

2009 Shining Star’s Commitment

Sets Example for Success

     At the heart of the Family Self-Sufficiency program is the belief that, whatever their dream might be, everyone possesses the ability to succeed. When Belmont Housing Resources for WNY’s 2009 Shining Star Award recipient Carmelita Lee looked within herself for the strength to pursue hers, she found it… and much more.

     When Lee joined the FSS program at Belmont in December of 2003, she saw the counseling and education it offered as tools that could help her reach her personal and professional goals and create a better future for her family. At least that’s how she started.

     Up to that point, the challenges she had dealt with were already more than many people ever face. Building a new life for herself following an abusive relationship, she had single-handedly raised two daughters — now 16 and 26 — and was making a home both for them and for her two young grandchildren.

     Although she was able to get by with the help of Section 8 rental vouchers and public assistance, Lee wanted to provide more for those she loved. The Bachelor’s degree in Health and Human Services she had hoped to complete held the promise of increased earning ability, just as owning a home would greatly improve her family’s quality of life.

     All were worthy goals, the kind that the guidance and encouragement provided by Belmont’s FSS team have been helping participants achieve for 16 years. And that’s where Lee set her sights. It wasn’t long, however, before she discovered the meaning of the old saying that “life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.

     With all the adversity she’d already endured, there was still more to come. Shortly thereafter, she learned that she has Lupus Disease, and her oldest daughter was diagnosed with Cancer. Plan A, she realized, would have to become Plan B.

     But it was in rising to these challenges that Lee demonstrated what true “Shining Stars” are made of. Although she had to temporarily shift her focus from her educational and homeownership goals to her family and its health, she never took her eyes off the prize.

     A big part of her plan coming into the FSS program was to become no longer dependent on Section 8 and public assistance. And she did, thanks to the improved money and credit management skills she learned from Belmont’s financial education program and the fulltime job she earned handling citizen complaints for the City of Buffalo.

     Like the five awardees who came before her, the FSS program honored Carmelita Lee as 2009’s Shining Star not so much for the specific goals she reached as for the hard work and commitment she dedicated to reaching for them. But if you ask her, she’ll quickly tell you it was a “team effort.”

     In spite of all her hardships, she says she never gave up “no matter how far down I got,” believing that if she didn’t provide a positive example for her children and grandchildren, “how will they ever develop the courage and strength they’ll need to realize their dreams?” 

     The courage and strength she needed to keep going, however, she credits in large part to the members of Belmont’s FSS team, who she gratefully says were always there to reassure her that “if you really work at your goal, you can’t help but succeed.” Their unwavering support, she adds, “reminded me that, for all the bad that’s out there, there are good people like them who believe in you and make you believe in yourself.”

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     Lee received her honor at the 6th annual Shining Star Awards ceremony held Thursday, October 22nd at Belmont’s Central Office at 1195 Main Street in Buffalo. Attended by current and past FSS graduates, program alumni and guests, the event also celebrated the impressive achievements made by other program participants over the past year.

     Returning once again to personally congratulate 2009’s honorees and offer the evening’s keynote remarks was Stephen T. Banko III, Buffalo Field Office Director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has funded the FSS program since its inception in 1990.

     And for the third year, the Shining Star ceremony presented its annual award honoring the invaluable contributions that the members of Belmont Housing Resources’ enthusiastic and supportive professional staff make to the success of the FSS program.

     Recognized for the efforts she made on behalf of FSS over the past year was Housing Specialist Felicia Pryor, who joined Belmont in 2006 and works with clients served by the organization’s Buffalo office. Pryor received an engraved congratulatory “star” for identifying and referring the most potential participants to FSS, helping to significantly expand the growing number of individuals and families across Western New York who have benefited from the program.