March 19, 2024

Tour of Homes returns after hiatus

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After a one-year interruption, the Tour of Homes element of Newton’s Dollars for Scholars program makes its return in 2014.

Three Newton families have agreed to show their homes as part of this year’s fundraiser, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 6. For a $10 donation, participants will be able to tour the homes of Brian and Nicki Shores, Kip and Nicki Peters and Tony and Niki Pauley, with the proceeds going into a scholarship fund.

Newton’s Dollars for Scholars weren’t able to find Newton homes to show in 2013, so there was no Tour of Homes last year.

In talking to Lee Swenson, president of Newton Dollars for Scholars, about last year’s disappointment, one can hear the difference in his voice when he talks about a break in a string of more than 20 years of helping provide young people with college money.

“We had a hiccup last year,” Swenson said. “We used to have a lot more. But you have to find the right person at the right time — someone who isn’t moving, going out of town for a while or remodeling.”

Swenson said there have been as many as five to seven homes in the tour, which is a huge fundraising event for Dollars for Scholars. There were five homes on the 2012 tour.

The Newton chapter of DFS was chartered in 1985, and in 2012, the five-house Tour of Homes helped the chapter dole out 97 scholarships, worth $66,500.

Swenson said most of the host families tend to have festive holiday home decorations up, although that’s not a direct part of the tour.

“We used to call it the Christmas Tour,” he said. “Some homes have been decorated real minimally. Whatever folks decide to do, we’re real grateful they decided to open their homes to help support kids and education.”

Swenson said there have been repeat hosts in the past, but all three of this year’s homes and host couples are new to the tour.

The Pauley home is located at 117 West 11th Street South. The other two homes are both on Golf View Lane, with the Shores at 1300 and the Peters residence at 1330.

The tour will include a social stop at Newton’s Des Moines Area Community College conference center, which will likely begin about 11 a.m. and run through much of the afternoon, Swenson said.

Tickets will be available at U.S. Bank, First Newton National Bank, the Newton Chamber of Commerce, from DFS trustees and each home the day of the tour.

Swenson said he enjoys to see anyone showing thanks to the families who open up their homes for the tour. He laughed at the idea of having to approach strangers on the street and ask them to host the Tour of Homes in their houses.

“I’d be a little hesitant to do that,” he said.