“Lending Hands for HomeAid” Holidays
Campaign a Huge Success
HomeAid America, a building industry charity and one of the nation’s largest
builders of housing for the homeless, spent the entire month of November holding
events and undertaking activities to highlight and help to end hunger and
homelessness in this country. The annual event, called HomeAid’s Homelessness Awareness Month, received a huge boost from HomeAid’s national partner Stearns
Lending.
HomeAid America CEO
Peter Simons said, “Homelessness Awareness Month is a time for us at HomeAid,
which has dedicated itself to this cause for 27 year now, to focus people’s
attention on the problem of homelessness in this country, have a genuine
discussion about solutions, and take concrete action to get this societal
problem solved once and for all.” All of HomeAid’s 17 chapters participated
in the effort during November, with the five calendar weeks in November focused
on 1) homeless youth, 2) veterans, 3) homeless families, 4) hunger, and 5) chronic
homelessness.
As part of this national
campaign that Stearns Lending, a leading national provider of mortgage lending
services and a national partner of HomeAid America, held a campaign called Lending Hands for HomeAid. James Hecht, COO at
Stearns Lending, who also serves on
the HomeAid America Board of Directors said, “Thanks to our incredibly
generous workforce, as well as our business partners and others in the
community, this holiday giving campaign exceeded our wildest expectations. Our goal was to
provide 2,300 Care Kits, and we succeeded in producing 4,696 Kits—more than
double that number. In addition, hundreds of Stearns employees donated items
and volunteered their time. It was a powerful demonstration that the ‘I can
help you’ culture at Stearns includes making a positive difference in the lives
of others.”
During the Lending Hands for HomeAid campaign:
--Nearly 30,000 Care Kit items, such as
toothbrushes, toothpaste, granola bars, bar soap and travel-size shampoo, were
donated by employees, business partners and others. All Stearns locations had collection boxes to
drop off donated Care Kit items.
--At six
regional locations, donated items were assembled into Care Kits by Stearns team
members. Each Care Kit included a notecard letting the homeless recipient know
that he or she is not forgotten during the holidays and throughout the year.
The Stearns team members presented Care Kits at 10 HomeAid affiliated shelters
nationwide.
--In certain
locations, including Vancouver, Washington, employees drove the streets and
delivered Care Kits directly to the homeless in their communities.
--At HomeAid headquarters in Orange County,
California, packing items into Care Kits became an impromptu holiday gathering
for employees located at the Company’s Santa Ana headquarters. “While packing
items for the Kits, we were quite literarily lending a hand to those folks who
are homeless and in need during the holidays,” said Brian Hale, CEO at Stearns, who joined the packing party in Orange.
“I was overwhelmingly proud of our team members and their spirit of giving back
to the communities where we live and work.”
ABOUT HOMEAID AMERICA
HomeAid is a leading national non-profit
provider of housing for homeless families and individuals, founded in Southern
California in 1989. Through the
generosity of builders, their trades and their suppliers, HomeAid has completed
450 multi-unit housing projects nationwide at a value of more than $210
million, of which nearly 50 percent—over $100 million—has been donated by the
building industry. HomeAid currently has 60 additional projects in development
across the country. HomeAid has added over 8,500 beds in facilities helping the
homeless through HomeAid’s network of 17 active chapters in 12 states across
the country. These beds have been used by over 250,000 previously homeless
people over HomeAid’s history. For more
information about HomeAid, call 1-888-3HOMEAID or visit www.homeaid.org.