Help Make Priceless Memories: Send a Family to Night at the Ballpark
August 19, 2016 | 7:05 p.m. | Pfitzner Stadium, Woodbridge, Va.

It’s not too late to make priceless memories for families who rarely—if ever—get the chance to spend a carefree night out together: HomeAid is still accepting donations and sponsorships for our 6th Annual “Night at the Ballpark” on Friday, August 19. Your support—and as little as $100—can send a family of four to a Potomac Nationals game, where they will receive tickets to the game, concession vouchers and t-shirts; photos with the team mascot, Uncle Slam; and kids can run the bases after the game. One child will get to throw out the first pitch and every child will receive a new backpack, thanks to the collection efforts of eight organizations that participated in our 2016 Backpack Challenge. #HANVBackpackChallenge

“The Potomac Nationals have been privileged to partner with HomeAid Northern Virginia and the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA) for six years for this annual event,” said Bryan Holland, general manager of sales for the Potomac Nationals. “It is our club’s great honor to host fans who are struggling with homelessness as a means to help enhance these individuals’ outlook and treat them to a fun evening of professional baseball.

“Thanks to the dynamic efforts of organizations like HomeAid and NVBIA, it is possible to improve the lives of countless people in our region who are seeking a safe and secure place to call ‘home,’” he added. “Together, our mission is to assist in eradicating homelessness in our community for good, and the P-Nats are humbled to play a role in supporting these deserving folks who want the opportunity to maintain a home.”

“HomeAid’s Night at the Ballpark is one of the biggest community-building events we host all year,” HomeAid President Greg Carter said. “Our Builder Captains, trade partners, and stakeholders often meet the individuals and families we serve when we complete a project, but it’s another feeling entirely to experience a night out together and get to witness these families participate in a summer tradition just like any other family. We’re grateful to the Potomac Nationals for this ongoing partnership, which allows us to give families the gift of time together at a ballgame.”

Donate today!

Thank you
Augustine Homes, Buhl Electric Co., and the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA) for your critically important sponsorship and support of the 2016 Night at the Ballpark!

HomeAid, Winchester Homes to Renovate Home for Women Veterans, Families
Major renovation project to kick off August 10

HomeAid Northern Virginia and Builder Captain Winchester Homes, a Tri Pointe Group company, have forged a new partnership with Final Salute Inc., a nationally recognized organization that provides supportive services and transitional housing for women veterans. Next week, HomeAid, Winchester, and a team of approximately 20 trade partners will kick off the estimated $330,000 project, which will extensively renovate a 8,700 square foot home in Alexandria, Va., for 10 women veterans and their children, along with a full-time resident manager. 

“There are an estimated 55,000 homeless women vets in America—the fastest growing population of the homeless,” said Jaspen (Jas) Boothe, founder of Final Salute and a Major currently serving in the Army Reserves. “Yet all too often, supportive housing programs for veterans aren’t tailored to the needs of women veterans, and, in particular, single-mother veterans raising children. More than 60 percent of programs that take in veterans don’t take in women, or don’t take in women with children, or have age limits on the children or have limits on how many kids you can take. That is not the case with Finale Salute. Women have served in every major conflict since the Revolutionary War, and it is time they received the resources and support they have earned through their service and sacrifice.”

“When I heard Jas’ story—she is an Army veteran who faced homelessness herself when she lost her home to Hurricane Katrina and was diagnosed with cancer at the same time—I was shocked to learn of the lack of support for women veterans, particularly those with children,” said John Monacci, executive vice president of Winchester Homes. “When we and our trade partners met with Jas, she explained not only the genesis behind her founding of Final Salute, but also how our work with HomeAid would give a safe sanctuary to so many women veterans and their families right here in our region. It’s inspiring to be involved.”

Monacci, who also serves on HomeAid America’s Board of Directors, pointed out that working with veterans groups is a new initiative for both Winchester Homes and for HomeAid.

“Upward of 30 percent of veterans in the modern military are women,” he added, “and with so many of our veterans returning home with disabilities and mental health issues, they are more at risk for homelessness. Many come back with little support, and I’m proud that HomeAid Northern Virginia—as well as HomeAid America—is taking this important step, joining other major national organizations that are also focusing more heavily on veteran projects. It’s a great way to serve those who have served our country.”

“These women are deserving of a stable and safe home,” added Boothe, “and this renovation will allow each woman, and her kids, to have an inviting, private ‘piece of home’ within the larger home, along with communal space. We’ll be fortifying their sanctuary.”

Of the estimated $330,000 cost of the renovation, more than 50 percent will be donated by HomeAid Northern Virginia, Winchester Homes, and the project trade partners. Final Salute is receiving a generous donation from the Flatley Foundation for this project, and 100 percent of proceeds raised by the Van Metre Cornhole Challenge to benefit HomeAid Northern Virginia will be donated to the project. HomeAid is seeking grants to cover the remaining costs, so that Final Salute can invest its funding on programs and services for women veterans, rather than on construction costs.

Since its founding in 2010, Jas Boothe and Final Salute have served more than 2,000 women across 30 U.S. states and territories.

Building a team for a large HomeAid project requires calling on trusted and dependable partners, so when it was time for Builder Captain Toll Brothers to build its team for the Youth For Tomorrow (YFT) project, they turned to those with whom they work the most.

“The YFT house will have two kitchens and seven bathrooms, and Timberlake Cabinetry does a lot of kitchen and bath work for us in this region,” said Jordan Hartigan, Toll Brothers’ senior project manager. “When we asked if they’d like to participate, they were on board right away, eager to help and willing to donate the products and the labor. They’ve always been very flexible and easy to work with, and they demonstrated that same level of customer service when it came to working with YFT.

“Timberlake didn’t offer base grade products,” he added. “They’re giving upgraded cabinets with extra features. They didn’t have to do that, but it doesn’t surprise me that they did … that’s just how they are as a company. They’re also a turnkey operation, from delivery to installation, which makes everything so much easier.”

“We’ve been involved with a number of HomeAid projects through other Builder Captains, and it’s always been a pleasure,” said LuAnn Boyd, Timberlake’s account manager for Toll Brothers. “Toll Brothers is an extremely important partner for us. So, when they mentioned that they were taking on the YFT project and asked if we wanted to join them, we gave an immediate, ‘Yes!’

“Toll Brothers’ values are aligned with ours,” she added. “It’s part of our culture to give back to the community like this, and the project is right in our backyard. These are our neighbors, it’s a great cause, and we’re glad to be working with Toll as they lead this project.”

Timberlake Cabinetry is a division of American Woodmark Corporation, the third-largest manufacturer of kitchen cabinets in the United States and Canada. American Woodmark has served builders since 1980, and the company launched the Timberlake brand in 1990 to deliver “on-time and complete” cabinetry.

HomeAid, Toll Brothers and trade partners expect to complete the 5,000 square-foot, $650,000 home on the Bristow, Va., campus of YFT by year’s end. The home will allow YFT to expand on-campus residential services for up to 36 more girls every year, who are pregnant, young mothers, homeless, runaways, or survivors of sex trafficking.

Serving as a Builder Captain or trade partner on a HomeAid project is a demonstrable way to give back to the community, utilizing the skills and expertise at which the homebuilding industry excels. But building and renovating homes and shelters for Northern Virginia’s homeless is not the only way to support HomeAid, as Madison Homes’ newest marketing campaign demonstrates.

“We were holding a general sales and marketing discussion about our newest Eleven Oaks development in the Fairfax/George Mason University area,” explained Russ Rosenberger, president of Madison Homes and longtime board member for HomeAid, “brainstorming ways to bridge the web traffic we’re seeing on the project to the numbers who ultimately show up in our sales office. Of all the ideas we sparked, we landed on encouraging site visits by offering a $10 donation to HomeAid for every new prospect who visits our sales office or tours a model home. We added a splash page to our website promoting the offer, and we’ve seen comparatively strong traffic over the last several weekends.

“While we can’t definitively say that the boost in traffic is tied solely to the HomeAid promotion,” he added, “the bottom line is that we’re trying something new for our company and supporting HomeAid in a new way. We’ve added an informational display about HomeAid in the sales office and now give handout materials to everyone who comes in. Our splash page offers a downloadable PDF about the development, a link to the HomeAid website, and the promise of our $10 donation for every visit. So even if someone visits our website or walks in to the office without knowing about the promotion or about HomeAid, chances are good they’ll leave having learned something new. Creating more awareness of HomeAid is a way to help advance its mission.”

There are many other ways to support HomeAid and the people we serve, including in-kind support for projects; workplace giving and employer matching gifts through the Combined Federal Campaign and United Way; event sponsorships; donations of appliances and home furnishings; gifts of stocks and mutual funds; or participation in our Helping Hands program, which includes donations of household essentials and grocery gift cards, or volunteering your talents in areas as varied as cooking, photography, organization, and tutoring.

“Whatever we can do to support HomeAid—and find new ways to educate the community about how they can help—is a plus,” Rosenberger added. “I’d love to see other builders trying promotions like this.”

Builder Captains Needed

Help HomeAid celebrate its 15^th anniversary in a big way! We are looking for a homebuilder to lead what will likely be our biggest project all year (retail value): a $850,000 renovation of an eight-unit apartment building used as housing for people who are homeless as a result of job loss, are battling substance abuse, or are survivors of domestic violence and/or desertion. Owned by Community Lodgings, the building is in Alexandria, Va., and we have several funding partners already in place. All we need is a Builder Captain to get started; contact Christy Zeitz for more information!

HomeAid will also have the privilege of revisiting a past project for a refresh, as we head back to Catholic Charities in Woodbridge, which in 2008 underwent a $1.4 million renovation by Beazer Homes. In 2008, Beazer’s Gary Szebalskie said the experience gave him “a feeling unlike any I’ve had before,” while Catholic Charity’s Sally O’Dwyer thanked HomeAid and partners for doing “what [they] never could have done.” Contact Kristyn Burr to find out how YOU can experience how it feels to give families in need a home by serving as a Builder Captain for this project—or one of several other smaller projects in Fairfax, Herndon, Reston, and Springfield.

Sizemore Brings Passion to the Challenge of Homelessness in Affluent Northern Virginia

Juston Sizemore’s interest in the building industry started right out of college, a little more than 20 years ago, when he worked in a lumberyard. These days, Juston is the market manager for Builders FirstSource and serving his first year on the board of HomeAid Northern Virginia. Builders FirstSource has participated in more than a dozen HomeAid projects and last year was named its Trade Partner of the Year. He says he is proud of his affiliation with an organization that makes such an impact on the community.

Q: How did you become involved with HomeAid Northern Virginia?

A: There were a couple of HomeAid events for which different builders had solicited our company’s participation, such as the Builders & Friends BBQ. We participated for the first time about four years ago, and, prior to that, we had donated some materials for a few shelter renovation projects. At that point, we knew that HomeAid was a charity that our builder partners wanted to work with and get involved in, but I didn’t really understand the true scope of HomeAid. Then I attended the Gala & Auction for the first time, and I watched the video tribute to survivors of domestic violence who had been helped by the renovation of a shelter. For me, that video showed the true impact of what a difference this organization can make in people’s lives.

I knew and had done business with a few of the HomeAid board members and builders, and Builders FirstSource sponsored the Trade Partner of the Year Award in 2013. After that, we just became more and more involved.  When HomeAid [Executive Director] Christy Zeitz mentioned that they were considering having more trade partners on the board, I expressed interest and was selected in January of this year, along with John Buhl, of Buhl Electric. By having two trade partners on the board, we could bring different perspectives on costs, projects, and abilities—as well as our expertise as trade partners to the project—from the supply side.

Q: What does being part of this organization mean to you?

A: This area is diverse, with urban and rural areas within 30 miles of each other, but our proximity to D.C. and Baltimore allows opportunity. And with the constant influx of people, especially every four years, there is such opportunity for individuals and businesses, particularly in the homebuilding industry—in one of the healthiest and most active areas in the country.

Yet in this same area, there are folks in such a great state of need. Many times, not even by their own actions, some people find themselves in a bad living situation. We hear their stories, and we can relate, whether it’s a medical event, a lost job, or marital problems. It’s heartening to see that when someone is in a bad situation, HomeAid’s work can make such an impact. And who is better qualified to facilitate this than a builder or trade partner? Being able to play a small role this way is one of the most rewarding things that I can do, professionally and personally.

I try to participate in every HomeAid event that I can, because what better way to spend your time, especially when it’s with folks who are in the same industry? I was hooked after my first HomeAid event because I realized that HomeAid doesn’t just help people in their current situation; it can really change a person’s entire future.

Q: How do you like to spend your free time?

A: My wife and I have two daughters, ages 15 and 11, and they keep us pretty busy with sports and such. We live outside of Martinsburg, WV, and I’m an outdoorsy person. I like to fish and white-water kayak, which helps ease the mind a little bit. When you’re kayaking, you really don’t think about anything else. I grew up in a little town in southern West Virginia and was a white-water kayaker through college. I can’t really give it up now. I’m slowly but surely teaching my daughters how to kayak, but I also enjoy hiking, biking … the Appalachian Trail runs right where we live and work, and we have the Potomac River right down at Harper’s Ferry, which gives us lots of opportunity too. And sometimes I just like to read a good book.             

Q: What are your thoughts about the future of HomeAid Northern Virginia?

A: Renovating and updating homes—and giving the homeless a second chance—is very important. There is more need than there are Builder Captains, so I would like to see us continue to network and use all of the board member and builder partner connections to find more Builder Captains. We want to do as many projects as we can, and while HomeAid Northern Virginia does many projects and activities, there are still so many shelters and programs with even more needs, and they’re all worthwhile causes. 

Q: Do you have a favorite moment during your time with HomeAid?

A: I’ve only been on the board for several months, but I met two young girls who spoke at the ribbon cutting at the Youth For Tomorrow house last year. The thing that touched me is that when you hear these stories about homelessness and abuse, you tend to think it is happening somewhere else; you don’t imagine it happening in your own backyard. Yet these two girls who spoke were from Frederick and Sterling. Homelessness and domestic violence is so much more prevalent than many may realize, and these two girls were young … they were at the age when they’re supposed to just be enjoying life. Instead, they were going through so much.  The fact that these girls now knew that they would have a safe place to sleep at night, that they would be educated, and that every day they would have somebody looking out for them, made a real impact. As the father of two young daughters, it just really struck me.

Welcome

Cory Thacker, who has joined our staff as the communications and events manager and will coordinate marketing, event planning, and communications initiatives supporting HomeAid operations and shelter programs.

“I’m excited to join an organization that makes such a meaningful local impact and convenes many different partners to rebuild shelters and rebuild lives,” Thacker said.

Thacker formerly worked in communications and event planning at government contractor NMR Consulting; as a meeting planner at the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems; and as a conference planner at University of South Florida-Office of Continuing Professional Development. She holds a degree in public relations and organizational communication from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; is a frequent volunteer with Northern Virginia Family Service; and enjoys running, bikram yoga, and quality time with her five-year-old twins.