HBA members donate materials, labor to build St. Jude Dream Home

Through its Home Builders Association Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) established about three years ago, the HBA has partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis to build the 2007 St. Jude Dream Home with the goal of receiving as much of the supplies as possible through donations.

Like St. Jude Dream Homes across the nation, the home will be raffled off to benefit the hospital’s research. Tickets will be sold for $100 each, with 6,500 available, and the drawing will be July 1.

Scott Kisling of Up-Tyte Construction Inc. is leading this year’s local dream home campaign, building a 3,200-square-foot home in the Vintage Hills subdivision west of Springfield. Work on the home has already begun, but an official kickoff ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 24, with May 1 as the target completion date.

“It will be a three-bedroom home, but if someone wanted to, they could make some minor changes and make it a five-bedroom home,” Kisling said.

After choosing sketches and layouts that he liked, Kisling went to B&G Drafting, an HBA member that donated its services by drawing up the plans. The home includes a formal dining room, large kitchen, a sunroom, large family room, a three-car garage and an office area.

HBA was eager to participate when St. Jude proposed a collaborative effort with the foundation for the 2007 Dream House, said HBA Executive Officer Matt Morrow.

“This seemed like a natural fit for our association that we really wanted to do,” Morrow said. “Because we have a good network of builders, contractors and subcontractors with big hearts, it’s worked out nicely and we can get nearly everything donated.”

Donations from HBA members began streaming in following a Nov. 7 kickoff called Bricks & Sticks.

Among the donations are building supplies and man-hours.

BT Associates donated the lot for the house, which will be located at 4640 W. Silo Hills Drive.

More than 60 companies have donated to the house, Kisling said.

“We have donations anywhere from a $25 check that gets applied to the construction of the house up to a company that wants to do all of the floor coverings,” he added.

Kisling’s decision to volunteer as lead builder for the 2007 Dream Home was based on his belief in the work the hospital does, providing free medical treatment for children.

“I’ve run into people over the last year who have been patients there, and since we’ve started this project, I’ve run into probably 50 people who have relatives or friends who’ve gone there,” he said.

Plus, he said, he knew he’d have time for the project.

“There’s no money out of my pocket, but I don’t get anything for it, whereas normally, if you build a house, you get profit and your overhead is taken care of,” Kisling said.

HBA member MGM Properties Inc. worked directly with St. Jude to build the 2005 and 2006 homes. Through its partnership with St. Jude, HBA hopes to build more dream homes in the future.

“It allows us to have a different builder every year be the lead builder, so nobody gets stuck trying to carry what is a pretty big load every year,” Morrow said.

Raffling off new homes has become one of St. Jude’s largest fund-raising programs, said Allison Brockman, a St. Jude representative at the hospital’s St. Louis regional office who worked on the 2005 and 2006 Springfield dream home projects.

“Right now, we’re at about 32 dream home campaigns,” she said. Each year, two to five new campaigns are launched nationwide, but not all cities build a house each year.

St. Jude tries to keep administrative expenses at a minimum, Brockman said, with 87 percent of funds raised going directly to the research hospital.

Although the hospital is based in Memphis, children everywhere may potentially reap its benefits.

“Any research that’s done at St. Jude is shared freely across the country and in foreign countries,” Brockman said. “It’s published and shared in medical journals so … people who are at St. John’s in Springfield or Children’s Hospital in St. Louis are being treated with protocols that have been developed at St. Jude for their specific type of cancer.”[[In-content Ad]]