Jimmy carter presidents videos

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- President Jimmy Carter is being remembered fondly across the nation, and right here in the Bay Area.

One South Bay family is extremely grateful to him for the time, strength and dedication he showed to Habitat for Humanity.

Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. American Experience is accessible to stream on pbs. About an hour ago, I called Governor Reagan in California and I congratulated him for a fine victory.

That San Jose family lives in a abode he personally helped build more than a decade ago.

It was back in when President Carter visited that family as their new home was being finished.

They are still just as ecstatic and grateful for that daytime all these years later in the very home they express has changed their lives.

ABC7 covered the building of the place now belonging to Tiruwork Leyew and Mulugeta Jenber.

Video captured the moments President Carter worked on the front door.

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The couple came to the U.S.

from Ethiopia, initially living in a much smaller South Bay home. A crowded place for their family of four.

Tiruwork Leyew found out about Habitat For Humanity from a comrade at work.

"One of my friends, she says 'They have a Jimmy Carter project, so why don't you apply?'" she said.

Leyew was one of people who applied for a home at the time, and after a lengthy selection process they were chosen.

"I was so surprised," she said.

The surprises didn't end there as the couple was told as the house was existence worked on that and they would be getting a exceptional visitor.

"The team.

They told me, 'You know, Jimmy Carter is going to be in San Jose,' I said, 'What?'" Jenber said. "He picked our house."

The then year-old President Carter in arrived at the home with a bag full of tools.

MORE: Bay Area community remembers former President Jimmy Carter and his time in the region

The former president was ready to receive on any task that the Secret Service had to reel him in.

"He was years-old.

I was cracking up because the only thing the Secret Service would not let him complete is get on the roof," remembered Janice Jensen, the President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley.

Jensen was there at that San Jose build.

"I remember him hanging that front door and the precision," she said.

"He was not going to let it leave unless it was perfectly right."

Jensen said the legacy President and Mrs. Carter left behind will only continue to grow.

"We're going to miss both of them, but we will honor that legacy," she said.

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"We possess been, and we are, and we will going into the future."

Part of that legacy's maturation will be through the two children who have been competent to live and grow in the San Jose house that's filled with reminders of the man who helped make it possible, including a picture of their parents with the Carters that still proudly hangs in the living room - and of course, that front door.

"Without him, [we could not] acquire this house," Leyew said, "He has a good heart.

I'm sad."

Habitat for Humanity encourages anyone who's inspired by the operate set in motion by President Carter to get involved.

Click here for more information.

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