Press releases
Wayne Homes gathers friends and neighbors to help tornado victims
July 23, 2010
Cygnet, OH --- Using a combination of tasty summer foods, prizes and perseverance, the employees of Wayne Homes raised over $2,000 to help the victims of the tornado that devastated parts of northwest Ohio on June 6. The fund-raising began as an initiative within the company. But it quickly turned into a community-wide effort.
“Our corporate office in Uniontown was amazing,” says Tom Sear, sales manager for the Wayne Homes office in Bowling Green. “They raised over $1,000 themselves. But since the Bowling Green office is closest to where the tornado hit, we felt we needed to host a public event.”
So that’s exactly what they did. On July 9, Sear and his staff hosted the “Raffle for Relief” at the Wayne Homes model center on Dixie Highway. They had the barbecues fired up, the bouncing castles and balloons fully inflated, and the prizes piled up by the dozen.
“We went out and canvassed the whole area for prize donations,” says Jeanie Thomas, the construction manager at the Wayne Homes Bowling Green office and the project leader for the raffle event. “We talked to our trade partners and all sorts of local businesses. The response was just huge.”
Companies who donated prizes and/or money included: 84 Lumber, AE Electric, Ballriechs Potato Chips, Costco, Dible Plumbing, Dietsch's Ice Cream, Easy Street Café, Fiddlestix, Giant Eagle, Gordon Lumber, Hazelton Salon, Kelly's Chevrolet, Maggie Moos, McDonalds, Mr. Spots, Nellie Bagels, Northwest Masonry, Qdoba, Starbucks and Walmart.
All those prizes resulted in a lot of winners. “We had so many prizes, it seemed as if almost everybody who came out won something,” Sear says. “Some people had two or three prizes.”
But in the end, it was the people of northwest Ohio who won. The money that was raised by Wayne Homes is going to a scholarship fund and to the Red Cross to benefit the victims of the tornado.
“It took a big effort to pull this off,” Sear explains. “Jeanie Thomas did a great job spearheading the whole thing, and everyone pitched in. In fact, we’d like to do it again next year, maybe even bigger.
“It takes awhile for a community to heal after a tragedy like this. And we’re here for the long term.”
About Wayne Homes
The task of constructing a home from the ground up is made less daunting thanks to Wayne Homes’ four decades of experience, streamlined process and exceptional personal service. They help customers through every step — from home-site prep and financing to choosing from numerous combinations of floorplans, features and finishes. The result is a home of extremely high quality that perfectly suits the homeowner’s needs. Homes range from 1,300 to 3,500 square feet and from the $80s to $200s (plus land cost). Learn more about building a custom, energy-efficient home by dropping by one of the company’s eight model home centers or by visiting WayneHomes.com.
