Written by Staff on Wednesday, August 25th 12:35 p.m.
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Arvest Bank to Handover Keys to Local Habitat for Humanity Partner Family for Sponsored “Project ReHabitat” Build During Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Springfield, MO— Arvest Bank will celebrate its grand opening event with a ribbon cutting ceremony this Friday, August 27, 10:00 a.m. at their newest location – Chestnut & National, along with Habitat for Humanity of Springfield and several other local non-profit organizations. Arvest sponsored a Project ReHabitat build, and will be handing keys for the home to local Habitat partners Corey and Tanisha Holland, along with their three sons. Lunch and refreshments will be served. This event is rain or shine, and public is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Arvest designated the first week in August as “Habitat for Humanity Week,” and supported the Habitat mission by donating $1 for every person who came to the branch and signed up for an iPad giveaway, along with handing out free tote bags, hosting a live radio remote promoting the Habitat ReStore, and raffling custom rain barrels. The bank also promoted three other local non-profits throughout the remainder of August, with an iPad giveaway each week.
“Habitat Springfield is very happy to announce a successful build with our partners at Arvest Bank,” said Kristy Nelson, Development Director for Habitat Springfield in a press release. “Arvest, along with the Holland’s and other volunteers, have taken what was once a dilapidated house and made it into a home. We can’t thank Arvest enough for their support of Project ReHabitat, both financially and through the time and hard work of their employees who volunteered on the jobsite.”
The Holland family partnered with Habitat for Humanity by first going through a rigorous application and selection process, then attending Tools for Life seminars – 13 weeks of classes designed to help educate new homeowners on how to better manage finances, avoid predatory lenders, maintain and protect their investment, and so on, to help reduce the risk of foreclosures. Partner families are then expected to perform 350 hours of “sweat equity” before closing on their home, by working either on Habitat building projects or at the Habitat ReStore, which accepts donations of new and gently-used building materials and home improvement items, then sells them to the public to help fund the Habitat mission. Once families complete the program requirements, they are financed for a zero-interest home loan, which is later recycled back into the program through homeowner payments, to provide funding for future projects.
For more information on this project, the Habitat ReStore, applying for a Habitat home, or to donate/volunteer, visit www.habitatpsringfieldmo.org or call the Habitat office at (417) 829-4001.
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