Franchisee Stories
Building a Place to Call Home
DirectBuy of Spokane Partners with Habitat for Humanity
The best thing about being part of a DirectBuy showroom is the chance to give families a better quality of life. But all of us at DirectBuy of Spokane took this concept a step further through our center’s work for Habitat for Humanity.
We have been involved in Habitat for Humanity for just over two years. Our showroom has helped the organization in a number of ways, including raising funds to benefit the organization, regularly donating merchandise, and giving the group its own membership to save big on many of the items the group uses for builds.
But it’s been our work with the Blitz which has really allowed us to shine. The Blitz is a large-scale annual event in which Habitat for Humanity, with the help of thousands of volunteers, turns a huge parcel of land into a community of new homes. For this endeavor, we donated all the windows, doors and flooring for three of the six units in the project.
It’s an improvement not just for the residents of the new homes, but it also improves the neighborhood in general. It’s pretty amazing to go into an area that now has great-looking homes- the whole atmosphere changes. At the end of each Blitz, Habitat for Humanity holds a ceremony to present the houses to new owners, who put in hours of hard work giving their family a place to call home. They included a family from Russia, whose new home was the first step toward a promising future in a new country. Another family moved from Los Angeles to Spokane to escape the threat of gang violence. Building their own home in the Blitz enabled them to build a fresh start in a safe place. As a major contributor to the Blitz, we had the honor of presenting the key to the families and speaking to them.
It was exciting to see how it helps people help themselves. But we see the Blitz as only the beginning of a growing relationship between us and Habitat for Humanity.
We believe that we and all our members are blessed to have the good fortune of building beautiful homes together. There are many people less fortunate who are working to build their lives through sweat equity to achieve the American Dream. It is only fitting that we help them through our good fortune.