HomeAid Chicago honors charitable contributors from local home building industry
Several Chicagoland builders, trade partners and benefactors who donated their services, resources and dollars to area charity projects in 2006 were recently honored by HomeAid Chicago - the charitable arm of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago (HBAGC).
The various businesses were bestowed awards by HomeAid Chicago at the HBAGC's Inaugural Ball, held in January at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Chicago.
All recipients were chosen by HomeAid Chicago's Board of Directors based on their philanthropic efforts or monetary donations in support of shelters for the temporarily homeless and disabled that were initiated in 2006, said Natalie Ashton, Executive Director of HomeAid Chicago.
We wanted to salute the hard work and generous contributions of these individual companies that went above and beyond the call of duty," Ashton said. "These are but small tokens of our appreciation for their tireless and unswerving commitment to our organization and the temporarily homeless population we serve."
Two developers were given Builder Captain awards:
Anthony Pasquinelli, Chicago Company Manager of Pasquinelli, Inc., which is supervising the construction of the Trinity Services home in Joliet - a five-bedroom ranch that will be the future permanent home for five people with developmental disabilities.
Chris Carlson, project manager for Shorewood-based Phoenix Developers, which is in charge of building a new family and women's recovery center in Joliet on behalf of MorningStar Mission Ministries.
Working with HomeAid Chicago and MorningStar Mission Ministries has been an extremely rewarding experience for our entire team," said Carlson. "I hope that more builders will become inspired to join the good fight to battle homelessness and step up to help make a difference in the lives of others."
Pasquinelli said that collaborating with HomeAid Chicago "has been a source of great pride for our company. It's wonderful to be able to apply your skills and resources as a homebuilder to a project that means so much to its future residents as well as the surrounding community."
Additionally, awards fashioned in the shape of miniature house were bestowed for the first year ever upon five Trade Partners that provided materials and services to assist the Builder Captains:
Air-Rite Heating & Cooling of North Aurora
Bloom and Fiorino Architects, Inc. of Oak Brook
Cowhey Gudmundson Leder, Ltd. of Itasca
Frontrunner Glass & Metal, Inc. of Bolingbrook
Searls Windows and Doors of Plainfield
Lastly, the following home builder firms were awarded Foundation Partners plaques for their monetary donation to HomeAid Chicago:
Kimball Hill Homes of Rolling Meadows
Pasquinelli Family Foundation of Willowbrook
Kennedy Homes, LP of South Barrington
Bigelow Development, LLC of Aurora
"It is our intention to make these HomeAid Chicago awards an annual tradition. It is the least we can do to recognize those in our industry who volunteer their skills and resources to better the lives of others who are less fortunate."
Peter Schwartz, CEO of HBAGC
Since its inception, HomeAid Chicago has dedicated itself to providing shelters for the transitionally homeless: those thousands of individuals throughout Chicagoland who may be temporarily homeless destitute and need a place to stay until they get back on their feet.