The Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) of Jacksonville, Fla., was awarded the 2006 National Housing Endowment Home Builders Care Community Service Project of the Year Award — the second time the HBA has won this prestigious award — at the recent International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.
The HBA received the award, which recognizes a home builders' association for outstanding community service, for its support of Trinity Rescue Mission’s new Women and Children’s Center. The center, which opened on Aug. 16, 2006, houses about 1,200 women and children annually.
NEFBA previously won the award in 2002 for its work with the elderly in the Jacksonville area.
Before the new center was built, the Jacksonville area’s 18 shelters and transitional-housing agencies operated at full capacity almost every night of the year trying to house the nearly 6,000 homeless women and children in the city and surrounding area. Not everyone could find shelter, however, and every night, at least 130 women and children were left on the streets to fend for themselves.
NEFBA’s support for Trinity’s new center began with a challenge from NEFBA’s executive director, Daniel Davis, to the members. Raise $100,000 to built the shelter, he said, and he would match it by personally raising $100,000 more.
NEFBA’s members took up the challenge in a big way. Greg Matovina, past president of NEFBA, donated his company’s land development knowledge and resources and began a telephone blitz to gather needed materials and services.
NEFBA held an old fashioned “Raise the Roof” barn-raising that drew more than 200 volunteers to work feverishly on the project.
In all, more than 40 NEFBA member groups donated about 5,600 hours of labor, more than $600,000 worth of materials and $215,000 in cash to build the Women and Children’s Center.
“This is the kind of project that really makes you step back from the day-to-day reality of the job and realize what an amazing and charitable group of people make up the home builder community,” said Davis. “We had an incredible group of volunteers, many who shunned any sort of recognition, and there was a real spirit of neighbor helping neighbor. It’s an honor to be recognized publicly for something that was so gratifying personally.”
As winner of the National Housing Endowment Home Builders Care Project of the Year, NEFBA received a $5,000 donation to be given to the charity of its choice. NEFBA members chose the Trinity Rescue Mission.
“We are pleased to award this year’s honor to a project that had a huge impact on both the community and the dedicated volunteers that were the catalyst behind its construction,” said Gary Garczynski, chairman of the board of trustees of the National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of NAHB.
“While it was difficult to choose only one community service project — since we reviewed so many that were worthwhile and generous — the Northeast Florida Builders Association united its members in an effort that demonstrated a passion to address the problem of homelessness,” Garczynski said. “It’s an exemplary effort showing how home builders across the nation are committed to making a difference in their communities.”
The Home Builders Association of Central New York (HBA) was awarded the 2005 National Housing Endowment Home Builders Care Community Service Project of the Year Award at the International Builders’ Show. The HBA received the prestigious award, which recognizes a home builders association for outstanding community service, for its support of Casey’s Place, a pediatric respite house for children with disabilities.
For more than 17 years, legal, educational, bureaucratic and medical issues consistently delayed dreams of a pediatric respite house in the Central New York area. Enter Doug Klepper, president of Klepper Construction and a builder member of the HBA, and Patty Herrmann, daughter-in-law of an association past president, both parents of handicapped children. Together, they approached the association to ask for help with building their dream—a pediatric respite house.
To build Casey’s Place, the HBA of Central New York partnered with Familycapped, an organization that provides services to families who have children with developmental disabilities, age birth to 21. Familycapped currently serves a population of over 200 families in Central New York and is the only organization of its kind that is governed by parents of children with disabilities.
The HBA formed a capital campaign committee and established a budget of $750,000 for the new facility. The organization purchased land for the project through a communitywide fundraising campaign and a $250,000 state grant. Members donated materials, money and labor valued at nearly $500,000. In the end, Casey’s Place cost a little more than $1.3 million, but with the $500,000-plus in donations, the actual cost of construction was just a bit more than the original budget projection of $750,000.
“This is the kind of project that truly fulfills the ‘Builders Care’ philosophy, provides a desperately needed service and allows every association member to become involved in some fashion,” said HBA of Central New York Executive Director Bob Tomeny.
The facility is named in memory of Casey Crichton, who died in 1994 at the age of six. Casey’s parents moved to Central New York in 1998 from San Francisco, purchasing a home from Doug Klepper, only the second house he had built. The day after the couple moved, Father’s Day, Casey arrived, nine weeks early and suffering from extensive damage to her lungs and brain that left her blind and unable to learn to walk or talk.
Six years later, the Crichtons asked Klepper to remodel another house to accommodate their daughter’s disabilities. The morning of the move, when the Crichtons went to wake Casey, they discovered she had died during the night.
Casey’s Place, then, is in reality, the third house Klepper has built “for” Casey Crichton. On December 17, 2004, Casey’s Place opened its doors and so far overnight, school break and summer day program respite has been provided to more than 100 children and their families from eight Central New York counties. For these families, Casey’s Place has been a dream finally realized.
The Home Builders Association of Jackson County, Ore., was awarded the 2004 National Housing Endowment Home Builders Care Project of the Year Award for their support of Misteltoe House,a new intake facility for victims of child abuse.
The HBA of Jackson County partnered with the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) to construct the 3,200-square-foot facility, which is designed to assist the healing process for abused children and the volunteers and employees who serve them.
The center — which has helped more than 7,500 child victims of physical or sexual abuse in Jackson County — provides a place for children to disclose their abuse to law enforcement and child protection workers and to receive the medical, therapy, advocacy and support services they need. All services are provided at no out-of-pocket costs for the families.
The Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando (HBA) was awarded the 2003 National Housing Endowment/Home Builders Care Community Service Project of the Year Award for its Mollie E. Ray Elementary School Partnership, an initiative to boost morale and improve failing state achievement test scores at a local elementary school.
During the 2002-2003 academic year, the Mollie Ray partnership, which brought the association together with Orlando-area businesses Bowyer-Singleton & Associates and Pecora & Pecora, provided over 40 volunteers each week to assist with assemblies, school field trips and exam preparations. The HBA also donated $1,500 to be used for school improvements, constructed a new front entrance, installed new shelving to provide students with more organized classrooms and worked with the fifth grade science club to design a landscape project for the school's courtyard. In June, the results from the state achievement tests were released; Millie Ray had jumped from an F to an amazing C+ in just one year.
HBA president Stephen Gidus accepted the award on behalf of the members of the association, along with the $5,000 award check donated in the association’s name to the Mid-Florida Home Builders Foundation. The money will be used to support the Mollie Ray project, which has been extended through the 2003-2004 academic year, as well as other service projects in the Orlando area.
2002 Honoree
The Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) received the 2002 National Housing Endowment/Home Builders Care National Project of the Year Award for providing more than 200 needed repairs to the needy and elderly in their community. This volunteer work was conducted on behalf of the Builders Care Foundation. The Foundation was established in response to a growing need for repairs on homes of the elderly, disadvantaged and disabled in the community. Repairs include making homes handicapped accessible, painting, general repairs and installing heating and air conditioning units. Denise Wallace, NEFBA’s 2002 president and Arnold Tritt, NEFBA’s executive vice president accepted a plaque on behalf of NEFBA’s members and $5,000 was donated in NEFBA’s name to the NEFBA Builders Care Foundation.
Home Builders Care 2002 Outstanding Community Leadership Award
The Williamsburg Chapter of the Peninsula Housing and Builders Association received the Home Builders Care Outstanding Community Leadership Award for constructing Hospice House, the first respite and end-of-life care facility in Williamsburg, Va. This was a one-time award made in 2003. Working with the Hampton Roads Utility and Heavy Contractors Association, members contributed nearly $600,000 in labor, materials, equipment and expertise.
For managing the construction of the house, Peninsula Housing and Builders Association and the Hampton Roads Utility and Heavy Contractors Association received the Award of Excellence, part of this year’s Associations Advance America Awards program, a national competition sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
2001 Honoree
John King of Rampart Homes and a member of the Home Builders Association of Sarasota received the 2001 National Housing Endowment/Home Builders Care National Project of the Year Award for his contributions to building a home for Paul Salter. Paul, a Sarasota teen, suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed. Mr. King built the Salter family a new home with amenities specific to Paul’s needs including: an accessible in-ground pool with ramps, a back-up generator for Paul’s nighttime respirator; and wider halls and doors. The home was built entirely with donations from the community and area builders and suppliers.
Mr. King was presented a plaque and $5,000 was donated in his name to the United Way’s Success in Six program.
The HBA received the award, which recognizes a home builders' association for outstanding community service, for its support of Trinity Rescue Mission’s new Women and Children’s Center. The center, which opened on Aug. 16, 2006, houses about 1,200 women and children annually..jpg)
ous award, which recognizes a home builders association for outstanding community service, for its support of Casey’s Place, a pediatric respite house for children with disabilities..jpg "2004 Project of the Year Winner")
ort of Misteltoe House,a new intake facility for victims of child abuse..jpg)
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