Thanks! And please pass the dessert

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Almost 200 people got a big and delicious thank you at Habitat for Humanity's Building on Faith dessert.  It's an annual event to thank everybody associated with the charity.

There was more to be thankful for than ever this year with 18 families moving into either new or newly recycled homes in 2011.  That's the biggest annual total yet for the group.  The local chapter celebrated another milestone this year by building its 200th house.

Habitat for Humanity Director of Operations Alan Welch said the dessert is a thank you to all those people who make it possible.

"When you receive a gift, if you don't express your gratitude for it, they don't really know what the gift means," said Welch.  "That's what we want to try to tell people tonight, what their gift means."

Welch said that doesn't just mean money or time, but changing lives and breaking the cycle of poverty.

NewsChannel 18's Jamie Jackson moderated a conversation with a few families who have been recently touched by Habitat including one who just moved into their home and another who recently paid off their mortgage.