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U.S Home Honored By Special Olympics
Meghan Stromberg, Associate Editor
December 31, 2000
Professional Builder
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| Classroom and on-the-job training helps Special Olympics athletes hone their building skills. |
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Through Project Opportunity, a unique partnership between U.S. Home, Special Olympics Texas and Habitat for Humanity, U.S. Home provides hands-on skills training to individuals with mental retardation, who, in turn, use those skills to build homes for underprivileged families. As part of the learning process, more experienced athletes also help teach their peers.
Spearheaded by Bob Strudler, U.S. Home CEO and Vice Chairman and COO of Lennar, the program evolved out of a partnership between the three organizations in 1998. "Special Olympics asked us to be involved in the Jimmy Carter Work Project in ‘98. They wanted to build a Habitat home and needed some help. We got involved and it was such a thrill."
The most recent Project Opportunity endeavor was the construction of a Habitat home in northwest Houston. Thirty-five athletes participated in the construction, and according to Special Olympics area director for Houston, Renee Klovenski, at least a dozen of the athletes are actively involved twice a week in a program that allows them to practice and refine their newly acquired home building skills.
In the Houston project, U.S. Home volunteers worked side by side with Special Olympics athletes who learned valuable skills essential to the completion of the home including painting, plumbing, landscaping, wiring, drywall and trim work. "They were involved at every stage after the slab and framing work was done," says Strudler. "They get a great feeling to see something grow in front of their eyes and know that they contributed to it."
She attributes much of the credit for giving Special Olympians that unique opportunity to Strudler and U.S. Home "They do a wonderful thing for a living by building homes, but to turn around and give Special Olympic athletes a chance to share in that and learn a trade is incredible."
Klovenski and some of the athletes involved in Project Opportunity plan to have a booth at the International Builders’ Show in Atlanta this February where they will share their experiences and demonstrate skills. The next home will be built in Tucson in late May, says Strudler, and the goal is to build nine Habitat homes by 2002.
© 2010, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
