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Community Outreach |
In
its 50 year history, KB Home has earned a reputation
for building quality homes, providing superior value and
offering homebuyers an abundance of choices. In recent years
the company has built innovative communities, expanded into
new markets, earned countless industry awards and built
a reputation as the most recognized national brand in homebuilding.
However, KB Home’s true reward comes through the
volunteer work of its employees and by supporting charitable
organizations, philanthropic causes and community-based
groups that make a difference each day in the cities where
KB homes are built.
Community Involvement
Homebuilding is a central component of all growing communities.
Wherever KB Home builds, its employees consistently prove
their commitment to the community. KB Home strongly encourages
and supports its employees’ broad community involvement. |
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Community involvement often springs from KB Home’s
building skills and the company’s well-organized approach
to accomplishing large projects under strict deadlines.
KB Home recently put recently used these strengths in its
Tampa, Florida, division. Working with Mayor Pam Iorio’s
office and a group of youth volunteers, employees and trade
partners helped renovate a home for abused women and children.
The work was done according to KB Home’s high standards,
in a very short amount of time, while respecting the privacy
of the home’s occupants and the confidentiality of
the location. |
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Building strong communities is important to KB Home.
KB Home’s Orlando division teamed up with Harbor House
in Central Florida, where domestic violence is a major community
concern. The facility, the only shelter for victims of domestic
violence in Orange County, can only accommodate up to 52
women and children and is often at full capacity. After
approaching community leaders and determining Harbor House’s
immediate needs, KB Home will be building a new facility
that will accommodate up to 50 additional women and children. |
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KB
Home’s good-neighbor involvement in community projects
often comes in response to a local or regional emergency.
For example, after the devastating wildfires of 2003, the
company’s San Diego division stepped in to provide
homeowners and community groups with pre-filled sandbags
for to use in combatting erosion from the rains, and protecting
their homes and communities. Under the guidance of a county
supervisor’s office, KB Home helped inform people
about how to acquire sandbags to use immediately. |
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Often
KB Home’s community involvement is independent of
its role as a homebuilder, and is prompted by a critical
community need.
When employees in the company’s Dallas
division learned that a community food bank could not pay
its utility bills, KB Home immediately contacted the utility
companies involved and arranged to cover all the food bank’s
outstanding bills, allowing the food bank to remain open
and to use its limited funds for food and other critical
items. |
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After a wave of successive hurricanes struck central Florida
in the fall of 2004,
KB Home’s Orlando division partnered
with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the
American Red Cross to distribute more than 3,700 gallons
of water and more than 1,000 bags of ice. When Hurricane
Charlie hit Ft. Myers, KB Home conducted a supply drive
at the company’s Deep Creek community. KB Home volunteers
from as far away as the Raleigh, North Carolina, division,
helped collect a variety of much needed items, including
coolers, batteries, diapers, tarps, soap and more, and sent
them to Florida. |
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In San Antonio, Texas, KB Home played a key role in the
citywide effort to wipe out graffiti.
In addition, employees participated in the city’s annual Basura Bash to pick
up trash and remove debris along the San Antonio River’s
banks near the historic Mission Espada. It’s all part
of KB Home’s dedication to building great neighborhoods
while also bringing benefits to surrounding areas. |
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Home Builders Care is a national organization that makes
a difference across the United States.
KB Home worked with chapters of this organization in Arizona and northeast Florida
to raise money for construction, repair, renovation, and
beautification projects; student scholarships and grants;
charitable fundraising; rebuilding after natural disasters;
and toy, food, clothing and blood drives.
In Arizona, KB Home built a mini-castle inspired by the
Harry Potter books and movies to be auctioned off at the
sixth Annual Playhouse Parade. The 11-foot-tall castle required
100 volunteers to spend over 300 hours on the build. The
castle came with a complete set of Harry Potter books, moving
artwork, flaming cauldrons and a fireplace.
In a previous year, KB Home built “The Little White House,”
complete with columns, French-paned windows, interiors of
red, white, and blue, and presidential portraits hanging
on the walls.
In Jacksonville, KB Home worked with the Northeast Florida
Builders Association of Builders Care to paint, landscape
and provide lawn maintenance for the home of a wheelchair-bound
Vietnam veteran. KB Home is working to install a wheelchair-accessible
shower for Mr. Kreisler, a roll-under vanity and ergonomically
correct furniture for the entire home. In addition, a small
ramp will soon be installed and the back deck repaired so
that Kreisler may again enjoy access to his patio. |
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