Eric Karraker (left) talks with Jackie Jacobs, project coordinator for the Joplin Area Fuller Center for Housing, on Monday at the site of Karraker’s new home.A GLOBE | ROGER NOMER

Eric Karraker (left) talks with Jackie Jacobs, project coordinator for the Joplin Area Fuller Center for Housing, on Monday at the site of Karraker’s new home.A GLOBE | ROGER NOMER

He donated his entire collection to a charity that distributed them to young storm survivors so the children would have a toy.

When he learned his sister was to have a baby, he cashed in his penny collection and deposited all if it, $87, in an account for the child’s college fund.

Now, Karraker is being rewarded for his selflessness.

The Joplin branch of the Fuller Center for Housing is building Karraker his own home, and the branch is helping to put funding in place to aid in making Karraker’s earnings stretch as far as it can.

On Monday, representatives of the Joplin Regional Community Foundation presented the Fuller Center with a $10,000 check toward the cost of the $65,000 house that is being built. There is a ministry in Louisville, Kentucky, Crossroads Ministry, that finds churches that want to provide the labor to do a weekend blitz to build wall panels that can be obtained for projects like the Karraker home, Jacobs said.

“They have worked with Fuller Center for Housing nationwide before,” Jacobs said, and a woman in the national Fuller Center office helped connect the local group with those who provided the panels.

Volunteers will build the house, though skilled tradesman will be used for the installation of plumbing and electrical aspects.

The 1,000-square-foot house will have 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and the interior safe room will double as a laundry room.A

“This is a big help getting this donation from the Community Foundation,” to help toward the starting costs of materials for building Eric’s house, Crane said.

Center’s efforts

The Joplin Area Fuller Center for Housing has built four houses and repaired 40 to 50 homes since the Joplin tornado, director Randy Crane said.