Builders Care
It’s another workday sponsored by Builders Care, the nonprofit arm of the Northeast Florida Builders Association.
Over the past seven years, teams from hundreds of NEFBA-member firms have made crucial repairs to more than 700 homes. Thousands of individual volunteers have spent countless hours helping people ranging from disabled military veterans to critically ill children to forgotten octogenarians.
Mark Downing of CornerStone Homes got involved with Builders Care in 2004 and now serves as a board member.
“I went to one of the big workdays and took about eight or ten of my employees,” Downing says. “I liked the team building aspect of the project, and felt good about helping the elderly gentleman whose home we repaired.”
That's why Downing is such a huge booster of the program, which has also taken on some high-profile projects that have garnered national attention.
In fact, Builders Care is the offshoot of a huge effort. In 2000, the association partnered with HabiJax, the local affiliate for Habitat for Humanity, on the “101 Home Build” in Fairway Oaks, an abandoned public housing project.
Ten thousand volunteers—including former President Jimmy Carter—built 101 homes in 17 days, turning what had been a classic example of urban blight into a vibrant neighborhood filled with first-time homeowners and their families.
Arnold Tritt, then NEFBA’s executive director, had recruited Ken Kuester, owner of Lumber Unlimited, to coordinate the association’s participation.
“I needed a big man for a big job,” Tritt recalled in a 2004 interview. “And Ken has a skill for identifying people who are willing to help and motivating them to follow up. He recruited the builders and got them to say ‘I will.’”
Not long after the Fairway Oaks project, the Jacksonville Community Council released a study commissioned by the City of Jacksonville to address substandard housing. The report revealed that the city had some 40,000 substandard housing units. And it called upon private industry to get involved.
With the need documented, Builders Care was formed in October, 2001. The organization was envisioned as a delivery system through which volunteers, donated materials and services would be funneled.
“The timing was perfect,” says Kuester, who was so moved by the response to the Fairway Oaks project that he remained with HabiJax as a board member, serving as chairman in 2003, and volunteered to serve as founding board chairman of Builders Care. “HabiJax’s mission is to build new homes, but there wasn’t really a concerted effort to repair existing homes.”
Funded by the Jacksonville Housing Commission, fundraising projects and private donations, Builders Care offers repairs valued at up to $10,000 free of charge to homeowners who qualify for assistance. When costs exceed $10,000, homeowners may take out zero-percent second mortgages that need not be repaid until the home is sold or the owner dies.
Some homeowners approach Builders Care on their own. Others are referred through various social service agencies, ministers and even the city's Code Enforcement Board.
Bill Wilson, founding executive director of Builders Care, joined the organization as a staffer after serving as volunteer manager of the Fairway Oaks project. He is sometimes referred to in media reports as “a former builder,” but he points out that his profession hasn’t changed—just his customer base.
“Builders Care is the biggest remodeling contractor in Northeast Florida,” Wilson says.
Wilson is joined on staff by operations director Chris Simons, event coordinator Robin Wilson, office manager Bonnie Fontenot, construction leader Stephen Pendleton, webmaster/photographer Greg Molloy, SHIP coordinator Jessica Sudduth and project managers Julie Castine, Clancy Rebman and Jason Vail.
It’s easy to see why the organization’s staff and volunteers become so devoted to the work. The stories of the people who’ve received assistance are often heart-rending.
Downing, for example, took on a project for Rachel Willis, a quadriplegic girl whose roommate, Joy, was legally blind.
“Their families and friends had raised enough money to buy a house for them, but not to fix it up,” says Downing, who’s now a Builders Care board member. But thanks to volunteers and donations from CornerStone’s trade partners, a $125,000 remodeling job was completed for under $5,000.
Rob Brown with the Jacksonville Boys’ Home Association is also impressed with the Builders Care board. Boys’ Home programs include a group home, family foster care and specialized therapeutic foster care for dependent children.
“I went to two of their meetings to tell them how much we appreciated their putting a roof on one of our buildings last November,” Brown says. “They open their meetings with prayer, just like we do here. That board really exemplifies ‘gung ho.’ They were wonderful.”
In 2005, Builders Care hit the big time when its project in Hastings, a hardscrabble agricultural community in St. Johns County, was featured on ABC’s popular Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show. The project marked the first time the program’s producers had worked with a consortium of volunteer builders instead of a single company.
“I have a friend who runs a nationwide non-profit,” recalls Wilson. “He introduced me to [series star] Ty Pennington. I flew out to Denver to meet with him, and it just went from there. It was an adventure.”
During the project, a 4,280-square-foot home was built in 96 hours. Don Wilford, division president of ICI Homes, and Bryan Lendry, then president of NEFBA and President of Brylen Homes, coordinated the multitude of participating builders, subcontractors and suppliers.
The beneficiary was Willie Harvey and his family. Harvey, who had been diagnosed with adult-onset epilepsy and was unable to work, still repaired automobiles free of charge for his neighbors.
As part of the ongoing effort, Builders Care volunteers remained in Hastings after the television cameras left, doing the less glamorous work of making desperately needed home repairs for others who lived nearby.
Most of those repairs were related to health and safety, including water damage, plumbing and heating failures, electrical system defects and other problems that posed an imminent danger. The effort, dubbed Extreme Outreach, helped another several dozen families.
Wilson is quick to point out that Builders Care is typically involved in repairing substandard housing—not building mansions. But he believes that the exposure from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition helped spread the word and encouraged other building industry trade associations to get involved in their communities.
In Florida alone, Builders Care now has locally-operated chapters in six markets—Leon, Lee, Brevard, Flagler, Volusia and Citrus counties. Says Wilson, “We bring these people in and teach them what we do, provide them with a logo and set them loose.”
In some cases, the projects turn out to be larger than anticipated. For example, once Builders Care started work on Suzie Kivett’s home, the 100-plus volunteers, mostly from seven local Home Depot stores, couldn't seem to stop.
Kivett, rendered a quadriplegic by multiple sclerosis, moved out of her home and in with her parents during what she believed would be installation of a wheelchair-accessible shower. When she returned three days later, she was shocked to also find new carpet and windows, a repainted interior, new furniture, a remodeled kitchen and a fully landscaped lawn, including a wheelchair accessible stone path leading past flower beds, a jasmine-covered fence and a birdbath.
“The Home Depot stores had committed in advance to donating certain things," recalls Wilson. "But once the volunteers got into the home and saw what needed to be done, they started calling their stores and asking for more.”
Kivett was so moved that she offered to speak and raise funds on behalf of Builders Care. “This was such a gift,” she says. “God wants me to show people who need help that there is help out there.”
In addition to repairing homes, Builders Care has also built wheelchair ramps. Last October, the organization set a goal of building 25 ramps in one day during a Rampathon. Materials were donated and delivered to homes by local building supply companies and volunteers supplied the labor.
Each ramp had a heart-wrenching story behind it. For example, there was Billy Ray Bullock, age 3, who was born with cerebral palsy and lived with his grandfather, whose back injury made it difficult for him to carry his grandson’s 90-pound wheelchair up the front steps. Now, Billy is fully mobile and is even able to visit his great-grandmother, who lives next door and also received a ramp during Rampathon.
Builders Care has also come to the aid of Angelwood, an organization that provides group homes for children and adults with developmental disabilities. An Angelwood home housing five teenagers was totally renovated and made handicapped-accessible.
Then last summer, the organization remodeled another Angelwood facility, this one housing young girls, by adding three new bathrooms, raising the living room floor and rebuilding the kitchen.
“We moved the girls out to a hotel on a Friday morning,” says Diane Tuttle of Angelwood. “And in only eight days, Builders Care had finished the project so we were able to move them back in.”
Daniel Memorial is likewise grateful for the continuing involvement of Builders Care. The organization was instrumental in saving Daniel’s Youth Build program when federal funding was tied up.
“The kids in that program are high school dropouts,” explains Executive Director Jim Clark. “They spend half the day at Daniel for education, then the other half working with Builders Care.
By the time they get their GED’s, they have useful skills, and every one of them has a job.”
Over half the participants say they want to attend college, Clark says. “If not for Builders Care,” he adds, “I’m not sure what would have happened to that program and the 50 kids in it.”
Last year, Builders Care took on several major renovation projects for deserving Northeast Floridians.
Melissa Page-Bailie, who had cared for more than 150 foster children over the years, had adopted special-needs children. But her home lacked sufficient space to properly care for them. Builders Care completely renovated the home, making it handicapped-accessible and expanding the living area.
ICI's Don Wilford, managed the Paige-Bailie project. “Our mothers are our national treasures,” he says. “It was so inspiring to see how this woman had taken children from various backgrounds and blended them into a family. You’d swear they were all related, but they’re not. It’s a tribute to the respect she gets from these kids.”
John and Michelle Bell were involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that cost each of them a leg. They were unable to return home to their three daughters until Builders Care, aided by Mike and Pat Murphy, co-owners of Cordele Builders, completed renovations that made accommodations for the Bells’ disabilities.
“My brother, Pat, is also a motorcycle enthusiast,” says Mike Murphy. “And I have three daughters the same ages as the Bell girls. Once I walked into the house, I redrew the plans to give the girls what they needed.”
Shortly thereafter, the Murphys were at it again. This time, they renovated the home of J. T. Townsend, the Episcopal High School football player who was paralyzed during a game.
“Although that project didn't go through Builders Care, Mike Murphy says it was the Builders Care example that inspired him to take it on. “You just put your heart and soul into projects like these, ” he says. Not all Builders Care efforts involve whole-house renovation, however.
“We do a lot of work that falls below the radar screen,” says Kuester. “Things like lost power and plumbing problems. A lot of the projects are only in the $10,000-$12,000 range. They’re not all major renovations.”
Volunteer Jacksonville presented Builders Care with its Building Hope award at its 2007 Celebration of Service event. But the organization isn’t resting on its laurels.
In the spring, Builders Care completed a Youth Life Learning Center project for the Tony Boselli Foundation. The center, which occupies the site of a city-owned storage area in a blighted neighborhood, will help fourth- through eighth-grade youngsters with education and character building.
“The interior design and buildout would have taken months longer to complete without their help,” says Boselli, a former Jacksonville Jaguar. “They were just amazing. What they did enabled us to get the center open now.”
Wilford, who managed the project, says the center “will change not only the lives of those kids, but it will change the whole neighborhood.”
An expanded and enhanced USO Military Welcome Center at Jacksonville International Airport is the organization’s most recent project. It will give traveling service men and women a place to relax, watch television and play video games while in transit. Completion is slated for later this summer.
Two building industry professionals, who prefer to remain anonymous, think so much of Builders Care that they donated a motor home and had it adorned with the organization’s logo and the message, “Grab your hammer and follow us!” The vehicle is regularly taken to job sites, where breakfast or lunch is provided to volunteer workers.
Wilson is modest about his role in the organization. “My job is to keep things alive, new and fresh—to create adventure,” he says.
But there’s another purpose—or perhaps an ancillary benefit—to Builders Care. In a booming state such as Florida, where builders are often portrayed by politicians and the media as causing every imaginable growth-related social ill, industry leaders are recognizing that adopting a more organized and visible approach to their good works is important.
Increasing the industry’s profile locally while encouraging other industries to step up their community service efforts has been the goal of a television program based on Builders Care projects. The program, produced by DeepLight Television and called Builders Care, currently airs on Comcast Channel 7.
“Our TV shows have been successful in changing the way people view the building industry,” Wilson says. “We’ve changed the color of the hats builders wear.”?
For more information on Builders Care, visit the organization's Web site at www.builderscare.org. Or, you may call (904) 727-3443.