Home building industry paints the town with annual charity service day

Home Building News - November 2008Nearly 300 homebuilding professionals and Portland community members joined forces on Sept. 6 to improve 15 local homeless shelters during the Home Builders Foundation’s one-day volunteer blitz, Painting a Better Tomorrow.The Home Builders Foundation is the charitable arm of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. Its focus includes building and renovating dignified housing for the area’s temporarily homeless.“The various shelters in Portland provide a critical safe haven for families trying to get back on their feet,” said Foundation Director Melanie Duncan. “They operate on very limited budgets and are in need of the kind of repairs that make a temporary stay feel more like home. The Painting a Better Tomorrow program is one way the home building community reaches out and uses its resources to help those in need. It is entirely fueled by donated materials, time and heartfelt community caring.”During the event, 19 volunteer teams of builders, remodelers, bankers, brokers and other industry professionals put in more than 1,500 hours of community service as they painted the exteriors of several shelters and 50 rooms. The work also included remodeling shelter interiors, installing new windows, replacing flooring and repairing landscaping.Event sponsors Rodda Paint and Miller Paint teamed up to support the event by providing 185 gallons of paint and $1,000 worth of painting supplies. Other major sponsors included NW Natural, Albertson’s, T.H.E. Remodel Group, NW Door and Supply and Celebrate Catering.“It was wonderful to see so many partners united for a good cause,” said Duncan. “Painting a Better Tomorrow provides a way for the home building community to give back by doing what it does best, which in turn allows the shelters to do what they do best: provide a secure place where homeless families can rebuild their lives.”