A naturally gifted athlete, 19-year-old Dominique Riggins briefly gave football a try in junior high before settling into track and field, where he regularly left the competition in the dust throughout his high school career. A 2008 graduate of VBHS, Dominique was named 8th in the nation in not just a single event, but in the prestigious and grueling decathlon. (The decathlon consists of: 100-meter dash, broad jump; high jump; shot put; pole vault; 400-meter run; 110-meter hurdles; discus; 300-meter hurdles; 1,500-meter run. If you Google his name, you can see some of the terrific times he logged during his high school career.)
From the time he realized he had a gift for athletics, Dominique felt he could use it somehow to "do something - to become somebody. I wanted to go to a Division I school." His high school counselor, Jessica Wood, worked hard with the young man. "Every day, I'd be in her office and we'd talk about possible schools and what I needed to do to meet the requirements."
An eye to the future, Dominique hit the books as well as the track, earning sufficiently high college entrance exam scores in all areas - English, math, reading, science and writing - to allow him some exciting choices. With Ms. Wood's support and guidance, Dominique's academic and athletic skills were brought to the attention of several colleges, and he accepted an athletic scholarship - a "full ride" - from Charleston Southern University in Charleston, SC.
On a sweltering August afternoon, the day before he was to leave for South Carolina, Dominique stood in his front yard leaning against a well-worn hurdle he treasures as a reminder of his high school years. How does it feel, leaving home for the very first time? "I'm a little scared," he admitted, "but excited." He hasn't decided what course of study he'll pursue but he has plenty of time to make those choices. His future is filled with possibilities.
It was not long ago, however, that Dominique's future did not sparkle with hope and promise: he and his mom, LaDonna Riggins, and his brothers and sisters lived in a crowded and dismal trailer home, a place in which it was virtually impossible to claim a space which he could call his own, to concentrate on school tasks or to dream dreams of bright tomorrows.
Dominique, however, is blessed with a mom determined to make a better life for her family. Looking around her cramped, rundown home, she easily found the motivation. She applied for and was accepted into Indian River Habitat for Humanity's program and began the challenging journey toward homeownership. It was a struggle, she says, but she had known struggle before and, this time, she knew the reward would be worth all her efforts.
After putting in her hours of sweat equity, attending the training classes and fulfilling the other requirements, LaDonna and her kids found themselves receiving the key to their own home in Habitat's Grace Pines neighborhood in the Spring of 2004.
"At last we had a home to call our own. Now, I still work hard, but we don't want for anything. I always knew there was something good around the corner."
Dominique adds, "Getting a Habitat home took a lot of pressure off my mom and she was able to help me with my goals."
LaDonna said, "Habitat has stood by me through thick and thin, and that is still true to this day."She spoke as she sat in the office of IRHFH Operations Manager Susan Reaves, proudly sharing the news of her son's scholarship.
"We are blessed. We are so blessed."