Building Homes - Changing Lives
Building Homes - Changing Lives
Aug 9th, 09
The opportunity to help this young family turn a house into a home was a very heartwarming experience.
Late last year we decided to pick a local charity to support in Lexington, KY. In the past, most of our charitable efforts had been concentrated in the Roanoke Valley. We did our research and decided to partner with The Lexington Habitat for Humanity.
Our first meeting with Habitat included the director, construction director, resource development director, projector superintendent and the family. We talked about the process for us as well as the home owner. The home owner has to complete a 20 week class on the different aspects of being a successful homeowner. The homeowner is also required to donate 250 hours of “sweat equity” in the build. We were provided floor plans and our choice of two schedules. We chose the two day 10 week schedule. This would commit us to provide 15-20 folks for each Friday and Saturday for the 10 weeks. We started this on March 18th with completion by the end of May.
As many of you know, we were ahead of schedule and all ready to turn the house over to Cooky Cox on time; unfortunately, the local water company could not get the new water line to the house for another 90 days.
As we prepared to start, we talked to some of our vendors, customers and some of the local contractors about partnering with us to make this a true community effort. We were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming reply of "How can I help?"?
In preparing the work schedule, we recognized that we had an opportunity to fill up to 300 spots, and felt between employees, family and friends that this would be easy to do. We wound up with approximately 50 volunteers, most of whom donated more than one day. We want to thank those who participated and challenge those that did not to join us in our future efforts. The opportunity to help this young family turn a house into a home was a very heartwarming experience.
As we finished the house we wanted to make this an experience the children would never forget. We arranged for a limo (donated) to pick up Cooky and the children and bring them to the dedication. We also brought one of our biggest bucket trucks and parked it in the driveway. We did a spin off of the popular TV show and when we all yelled “Move That Bucket Truck,” the emotions were overwhelming as the applause for the family erupted.
The folks with Habitat were so impressed with our efforts that our build was their feature article in the summer addition of their newsletter, which is sent to over 5,000 people. They had never had a sponsor organize so many participating partners in the manner that we did. The list below represents the items we were able to get donated.
Services: Mullis Inc. (Plumbing), Woodford Builders (Driveway), Hubbard Construction (Floor Slab/Porch), ATS Construction (Street Extension), Kemper & Associates (Plumbing Fixtures), Rudd HVAC (HVAC Labor), Best Choice Supply (HVAC Equipment), MGB Construction (Interior Trim), Kenny Isaacs Interiors (Drywall), Porter Paints (Paint), Elliot (Electrical Wiring & Fixtures), Bluegrass Tours (Limousine), A-1 Rental (Storage Unit / Restroom)
Lunch Sponsors: White Castle, Republic Oil, S&S Tire, Little Ceasars, Napa, Stevens Oil, Jimmy Johns, Hydraulic Specialist, Blue Grass Auto Parts, MMI, Holophane Lighting
Monetary Donations: Saf Ti Co, Reliable Eq., Hi Line Supply, RGA, RAI, Eaton, Nesco, Bluegrass Trucks, Quality Traffic, Kroger, CVS, Dollar Store, Walgreens, Southland Lanes, Richie Restaurant, Dereke Jernigan, Global, Altec
These donations totaled more than $45,000.00 towards this fantastic project. Thank you to all of these folks, as well as our employees, for a job well done. This type of effort is what makes Elliot a great place to work.