“The church I’m a part of has done it for probably five or six years and I’ve been involved … going and doing quite a bit,” said Hamilton Caster CEO Dave Lippert. “One of the things you want to do as a business is engage. People like to participate in bigger purposes than just the business.”
Lippert said he contacted Habitat for Humanity to express his interest and learned Chick-fil-A was looking for a partner.
“What you need is a big space to build all this stuff and some capacity to handle things and they don’t really have that … but they had a lot of people who wanted to participate,” he said.
The two companies split the cost of the lumber and Hamilton Caster provided its woodworking facilities and a group of volunteers Saturday to cut all the necessary pieces of wood a day ahead of Sunday’s assembling effort. Chick-fil-A on Sunday provided food and beverages to the volunteers and their families as they assembled 62 wall sections and loaded them onto a truck for transport to the job site in Price Hill.
“Our mission statement at Bridgewater Falls is ‘Blessing People with Excellence,’” said Daryl Nelson, owner of the Fairfield Twp. Chick-fil-A. “We do that in the store, but I always want to give opportunities for my staff to bless other people and this is one of the service projects. We’ll do three or four different service projects a year.
“They’re able to build community with each other and then give back to the community, (as well).”
Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity will erect the home in Price Hill in three days after the lot and slab concrete are installed, Nelson said.
Chick-fil-A team leader Zachariah Schupe, of Monroe, said he was approached by franchise coordinator Charlie Kleine to participate in the event, which he deemed “a great honor and a great privilege.”
“This is just important to me to give back because … any time I can give back, it helps me be grateful for what I have,” Schupe said. “Many people, they’re like … ‘There’s people in other countries that don’t have homes’ but there’s people here that don’t have homes either.
“I just like doing this type of stuff where I can just give back and just feel good about … a family has a roof over their heads.”
Hamilton Caster wheel cell technician Chuck Lovett, who has worked for the company for 30 years, said Sunday’s volunteer effort was “wonderful” and that the company has always worked to help the neighborhood and the region.
“It shows that people care, the company cares … about helping people,” Lovett said. “When you’re blessed, you want to help other people be blessed.”
Overseeing the project was CrossRoads Missions’ Help Build Hope, a Louisville, Ky., ministry that provided the coordination with Habitat for Humanity, as well as the construction plans, and then directed the activities on the build day while providing instruction, tools and encouragement.
Raymond Bodley, Help Build Hope’s director of engagement, said while he typically must approach companies about helping out the cause, Hamilton Caster and Chick-fil-A distinguished themselves by volunteering to do so first.
“What it says about them is they have a heart for service … for partnerships and … for building community,” Bodley said. “… But they have a heart also to help build relationships with their employees to do such a thing as this … and it does make a difference.”
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