Building a Difference is a new documentary TV series featuring people, organizations and charities that are truly building a difference in the lives of those in desperate need. In partnering with the many leaders of this great mission, it’s our intention to share unique, personal and powerful stories that will help further the movement of on-going charity and beautiful acts of benevolence in our world.
Our cameras put you there as lives are dramatically changed through the selfless efforts of others who give from their resources, time and hearts. Our hope is that YOU will be inspired to do similar good works within your sphere of influence for the people who need it the most. Enjoy our collection of life-changing documentaries.
In Volume One of Building A Difference, we have the honor and privilege of introducing Northeast Florida Builders Care, a non-profit construction company founded by the Northeast Florida Builders Association of Jacksonville, FL. This unique, grassroots organization is a heart-felt response to the never-ending need of people including seniors and the disabled who live in unsafe environments.
Several documentaries have been produced that tell beautifully uplifting stories of how a blend of aggressive construction ethics and courageous volunteer efforts helped restore precious lives. During our time spent with Builders Care, we experienced first-hand the immeasurable treasure and richness one receives by "visiting the orphans and widows in their distress" and freely giving.
We believe this first volume of Building A Difference captures the true spirit and heart of organizations such as Builders Care. You will see why they are so successful at what they do and share the experience of how they are being used in such a mighty way by simply doing what they do best - building a difference. We hope you enjoy this collection of life-changing stories.
Mick Richards
Executive Producer/Director
Building A Difference
DeepLight Entertainment www.mickrichards.com
Building a Difference is a new documentary TV series featuring people, organizations and charities that are truly building a difference in the lives of those in desperate need. In partnering with the many leaders of this great mission, it’s our intention to share unique, personal and powerful stories that will help further the movement of on-going charity and beautiful acts of benevolence in our world.
Our cameras put you there as lives are dramatically changed through the selfless efforts of others who give from their resources, time and hearts. Our hope is that YOU will be inspired to do similar good works within your sphere of influence for the people who need it the most. Enjoy our collection of life-changing documentaries.
In Volume One of Building A Difference, we have the honor and privilege of introducing Northeast Florida Builders Care, a non-profit construction company founded by the Northeast Florida Builders Association of Jacksonville, FL. This unique, grassroots organization is a heart-felt response to the never-ending need of people including seniors and the disabled who live in unsafe environments.
Several documentaries have been produced that tell beautifully uplifting stories of how a blend of aggressive construction ethics and courageous volunteer efforts helped restore precious lives. During our time spent with Builders Care, we experienced first-hand the immeasurable treasure and richness one receives by "visiting the orphans and widows in their distress" and freely giving.
We believe this first volume of Building A Difference captures the true spirit and heart of organizations such as Builders Care. You will see why they are so successful at what they do and share the experience of how they are being used in such a mighty way by simply doing what they do best - building a difference. We hope you enjoy this collection of life-changing stories.
Mick Richards
Executive Producer/Director
Building A Difference
DeepLight Entertainment www.mickrichards.com
Who better to tell the wonderful stories of the First Volume of shows than Builders Care’s own Chris Simons. Building A Difference is proud and honored to have the talents of Chris graciously lent to us from Builders Care to share these unforgettable moments with the world.
Chris began his construction career at age 14 cleaning up jobsites. With so much on-the-job training, he became proficient at all construction trades. At 25 he experienced the miracle of salvation and began a life in Christian ministry. After years of serving in local churches, and as a children and youth pastor, he felt led to combine his life learned skills of building with his ministry call.
After years working for the Baptist Home for Children, he went on to work with Habitat For Humanity where he managed subcontractors, provided oversight of new home construction and supervised volunteer labor. He was also a member of the Supervision Team during the Jimmy Carter 100-House Build in September of 2001 where 100 houses were built for people in need in only 17 days.
Chris is currently the Senior Project Manager for Builders Care, whicvh renovates homes for elderly and disabled people. With his dedicated leadership and construction skills, he has helped Builders Care renovate over 800 homes in Jacksonville since the organization was founded in 2001. Chris has also been a pastor for the last 17 years and has provides pastoral services to the elderly and disabled people that Builders Care serves. His training and experience works well with his heart and is truly building a difference in the lives of those in need.
Chris Simons is married to his lovely wife Elena and is the father of two beautiful children, Chris and Elise.
Brian D'Amico is happily married to his wife Heather and together have four children.
He opened his own construction company in 1996 and have obtained state licenses for Florida State Certified Building Contractor, and Florida State Certified Roofing Contractor.
As President of ProSource Building Company, he has always strived to provide excellent service with personal attention for his customers, many of who have become good friends. A large part of his business has been devoted to helping others. His employees have been paid many times to work on benevolent projects for which he charged little or nothing for.
Brian gave his efforts to helping the George Family in Building A Difference and helped rebuild a home that was almost completely devoured by termites. Brian attended Builders Care's first volunteer day in its very beginning in 2002, lead many groups to faithful volunteering and has been presented an award from Builders Care for his faithfulness and commitment to the mission of helping people. He has planned, organized and managed many projects for Builders Care over the years including individual homeowner projects, roofs, handicap ramps, city projects and other benevolent projects. He also spearheaded the building permit and zoning process as well as planning and volunteering for a large nationally televised project in Hastings, FL by Builders Care and NEFBA.
Michael Murphy, born in Brockton, Massachucetts and raised in an Irish-Italian Catholic home, moved to Florida in 1985. He soon met his wife, Michelle, and together they have three daughters. He is currently a developer and custom homebuilder in North Florida.
As co-owner and President of Cordele Builders, Inc., Michael has combined his faith and work ethic in continuously contributing to his community. A few of the larger projects include working with Builders Care on the Bell family's home in Building A Difference, a couple left wheelchair bound from a tragic motorcycle accident.
Soon after he joined forces with, pro-golfer Fred Funk, to complete the Townsend home, an Episcopal High School student left paralyzed from a football accident. While Cordele Builders is a very successful home building company, Michael has been quoted as measuring his success on these type of projects.
Michael continues to give through his company as well as privately hoping to soon incorporate his horse ranch to help handicap children.
Glenn Layton's interest in construction was fostered at an early age by his father and mentor, a residential land developer in Sarasota, Florida. He began accompanying his father to various construction sites around Sarasota at the age of 12, sweeping houses and doing basic labor work. Glenn attended both the University of Florida and the University of North Florida and in 1984 graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Construction Management from UNF. Having lived and worked in the Jacksonville area during college, Glenn realized the opportunity for growth and decided to stay instead of returning to Sarasota.
In his first years in the industry, Glenn learned the critical skills necessary to be a successful builder by working in estimating and purchasing and by managing construction projects in the field. In 1998 Glenn joined North Florida Builders as Vice President of Construction. The merging of his talents and experience with this established company proved to be a winning combination. In 2004 North Florida Builders was purchased by Woodside Homes, one of the largest privately held homebuilders in the country. He now heads the Northeast Florida branch of Woodside Homes as Division President.
Glenn has devoted a great deal of his personal time to various non-profit causes, such as Habijax for Humanity, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Otis Smith Foundation. Under Glenn's direction, the Woodside Homes team has participated in various projects to help those less fortunate achieve their dreams, including Young Life, the Arnold Tritt Scholarship Fund, Habijax "Raise the Roof" project, Angel Works, Daniel Kids, Adopt-a-Grandma and numerous other contributions to schools, the military serving over seas and outreach programs.
A longtime member of the Northeast Florida Builder Association, and the 2009 NEFBA President, Glenn Layton and Woodside Homes have also been closely involved with the charitable branch of NEFBA, Builders Care. Over the years Woodside Homes has contributed time, money and labor toward the many critical projects of Builders Care.
One of the projects most cherished by the Woodside Homes team is the renovation of the Dix family home in featured in Building A Difference. Young Allison Dix was unable to return home after undergoing a life saving heart transplant at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville. Allison's doctors informed the family she could not return to her home in its current state due to mold, a leaky roof and other environmental concerns that would pose as life threatening to the 16 year old patient. Woodside Homes developed a detailed construction plan to renovate the Dix family home in five days. The Woodside Homes team, along with many of its sub-contractors, worked round the clock re-building, painting, landscaping and working tirelessly to get the Dix family back home before the holidays. A team of nearly one-hundred volunteers dressed in Santa hats welcomed them home. "We have been blessed with so much," Glenn Layton said, "participating in a project like this was just one more blessing for our Woodside Homes team."
Glenn is a member of the Beach United Methodist Church and is married to Lynn Layton, Executive Director for the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, Inc.. They reside in Ponte Vedra with their daughter, Mallory. Their son Clark is a Junior at the University of Florida. In his spare time Glenn enjoys all water sports and outdoor activities and tries to get to Chicago as often as he can to watch the Cubs play at Wrigley Field.
In addition to his endless responsibilities overseeing the operations of two Florida homebuilding Divisions for Engle Homes, Andy has tirelessly dedicated himself to numerous civic and volunteer projects throughout the Northeast Florida area. He volunteers his time by serving on the Boards of Directors of both the Northeast Florida Builders Association and Builders Care. But his contributions do not stop in the boardroom. Many times you will find Andy on the site of a Builders Care project, helping remodel the home of a local elderly or disabled citizen or, more recently, serving several days in the reconstruction of the Russell Bill Cook Park Community Center, partnering with the Boselli Foundation and Builders Care.
Andy Chambers was honored to lend his efforts and support in helping two very deserving local veterans, Brazil Freeman and George Swearengin. in the Building A Difference Veterans Day episode.
Andy's commitments to the Northeast Florida community and homebuilding industry were strongly evident as he was instrumental in developing the concept and launching of NEFBA's "It's a Great Time to Buy" campaign in late 2007. His insight and leadership helped strengthen the morale of many members of our industry during one of the most challenging times in recent memory.
Andy has also volunteered his time to students of the University of North Florida's Building Construction Management program by offering guidance on various projects. Additionally, he has helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Florida through various fund-raising events he has spearheaded and has also served on the Board of Trustees of a local church, helping develop a new building project and its associated fundraising campaign.
When not serving, Andy enjoys spending time with his wife, Lisa, and their two sons."
Don Wilford is a third generation builder with the 4th generation sons all in the family business. Don was greatly influenced and trained by his father to learn this noble trade. He started as a young teen sweeping out houses and digging ditches and through the years has excelled in multi-family, commercial and residential construction. Today Don serves as Division President of ICI Homes, a top 100 homebuilder based out of Florida. A native of Dayton, Ohio, he moved his young family to Florida in 1984.
Don and his company became involved with Builders Care when the non-profit arm of the Northeast Florida Builders Assoc was launched. "My heroes have always been those who started with nothing and never forgot where they came from. I believe that those who receive should also give back more than the take. Over the years I have admired the doctors and nurses that donate their God given talents by performing medical services for those in need. I am a builder… God blessed me with the talent to do things with my hands and mind. It is only second nature for me to rally our troops to use our talents to help others in need. I firmly believe that if everybody shared their professional talents with those less fortunate then this will for sure make our world a better place."
Although Don Wilford has been giving to Builders Care for years, he began the Building A Difference documentaries by helping Cola Mae Harris and came back to the show again to help the Page-Bailie family.
Don married his High School sweetheart Lou Ann at age 19. Together they have raised 3 sons also involved with Builders Care and are the proud grandparents of 5 grandchildren. He is a current board member of Builders Care and also serves as Vice Chairman of the Construction Industry Licensing board as appointed by Governor Bush in 2005. Don was the recipient of the "Mentor of the year" in 2005 for his work through the States Attorneys' office mentoring jailed juveniles, as well as the "Dick Baker" award from The Northeast Florida Builders Assoc in 2005 for humanitarian and community service. He received the 2006 "National Mentor of the year award" in Washington DC by the National Mentor partnership organization for his efforts to help a jailed juvenile enter society through his mentorship and was awarded the Northeast Florida's Builders Assocation's "Member of the Year" in 2006.
Don is currently a member of Celebration Church in Jacksonville Florida and becomes closer with God each day.
As founding executive director Bill Wilson has been Builders Care's visionary and spark plug.
Bill is an accomplished builder. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Florida (National football champions GATORS) with a degree in Building Construction and is licensed as a State of Florida Certified General Contractor. He has thirty plus years of construction experience both commercial and residential.
He is the definitive family man, forth generation to be born and raised in Jacksonville, married to his wife Robin for over twenty five years, raised three children, has been active in church, scouts and the community.
His people skills, business ability, and life time of net working in Jacksonville makes him the perfect leader to lead the dynamic life changing company that Builders Care has become.
When not working on Builders Care projects Bill enjoys SCUBA diving, dirt biking, fishing, or cooking for friends at the lake house.
Message from Bill: Please read on for the history on BC and how you can be involved.
People often ask where did the vision of Builders Care come from? The simple answer is from God, but that is not really what they are asking. They are asking how did all this get started with a thought toward maybe I can do it too. You can! You simply need to be committed. I prefer one committed volunteer over 100 involved volunteers. It's the difference between the pig and the chicken at breakfast.
Like many things in life it is hard to trace the beginning. There has been so many people that have been involved with BC and each has their own beginnings, reason and seasons.
I trace my personal beginning back to the times I was looking for good community service projects for my 9th and 10th grade boys Sunday school class or the Boy Scouts. While the needs were there, there was no organizational surrounding these needs. Through the years, owning my own construction company, I had given back to the community in various construction projects for non-profits such as for a children's home, a day care facility for mentally challenged adults, a children's area for my church and many other minor projects. I knew that there was a need out there for a non-profit construction company that would identify and prioritize the need, and organize the resources.
The business plan came together the summer of 2000 when a elderly client, after renovating her home gave me a book by Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, entitled A Simply Decent Place To Live. That book described the Habitat for Humanity business model including the concept of shoe leather Christians. I thought with a few modifications this was the business model that would work for a non-profit construction company that would provide construction services for those that can't help themselves.
I approached Frank Barker the Executive Director of Habijax (the largest habitat affiliate in the country) with my ideas and he agreed it would be a blessing to many. He told me that it seems that every house he builds there is an elderly person across the street that has been blessed with a house, but simply needs a roof or repairs. His stock answer to such individuals was "we don't do roofs we build houses". Yet he knew this problem needed to be addressed.
Frank wanted to be involved, but he said he could not at that time in that he had committed to a major Habitat 100 house-building project. He casually asked how could a 100-house blitz build be built in a few days. At that time Habitat for Humanity had tried unsuccessfully to build a large blitz build. I told him of a concept of breaking the project up in many parts and having many builders do a few houses, much like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. He asked me to tell that concept to others at a meeting at which after the meeting he asked "will you function as the project manager".
At that time, the Northeast Florida Builders Association leader was Arnold Tritt, which through a thirty-year career had built the association into a powerful trade organization with a rich history of giving back to the community. NEFBA agreed to get involved with the 100-house build bring twenty-five builders to the project lead by Ken Kuester, a successful lumberman.
The stage was set, to take on such an undertaking. It required quickly building an organizational group that would coordinate the many entities such as the Northeast Florida Builders Association, its twenty five builders and hundreds of trade partners lead by Arnold Tritt and Ken Kuester; HabiJax lead by Frank Barker; City of Jacksonville (fire, police, administration, transportation, building department), many Jacksonville businesses, churches, civic organizations; and over 17,000 volunteers with me some where in middle running logistics.
Well it took nine months to plan and seventeen days to build. It was a huge success with Millard Fuller and Jimmy Carter coming to town to help with the project. 101 houses was built in 17 days. 101 families had a simply decent place to live.
With a huge win under our belts and a desire to help others, effectively the 101-house-bliz building organizational group was formalized into the non-profit construction company Builders Care. With Ken Kuester as chairman of board and me as executive director and many of the wonderful caring individuals from HH and NEFBA making up the board, we built an organization that delivers millions of dollars worth of construction per year to those in need.
While the above lays out how we got started and who we are, it does not answer the "what" and "why" we do what we do or how you can get involved. If you are interested read on.
On the outside it appears we are about the sticks and bricks of construction, which is true to a large degree. But, so much more is happening than immediately meets the eye. Builders Care's business model is very complex and what we do is dependent upon what you do and what your goals are.
For example if you are a business that wants to be spot lighted in the light of being a good community steward, BC becomes part of your marketing plan and can help in such a way that the will capture media attention. If you are a believer wanting to spread the word, BC is a place both believers and non-believers come together in a unifying spirit that is conductive to spiritual conversations. If you are a non-profit providing services to those in need, BC is the place to get the construction required to do your mission. If you are a church or civic group with a desire to do a service project, BC is your one stop organizer. If you are someone wanting to learn more about construction it is a place to learn how to do a home project. If you simply are looking for a unique entertaining fun way to spend a day BC is a place to have fun and meet new friends. Heck if you are just hungry BC is a good place to eat; I cook more hotdogs these days than I drive nails. You get what I mean. Like everything in life you will get out of it what you put in. The truth is, folks that help BC is a combination of many of the above.
When asked what we have achieved it is easy to provide a list of big and small construction projects totaling over $20,000,000 in seven years that have improved the lives of tens of thousands. What is more difficult to measure is the impact on the lives of both the people served and the people serving. Without a doubt, it is considerable and has eternal implications. My personal favorite BC achievement is not a project, but a man. An individual that hit the bottom of what life has to offer; troubled with addictions and a broken family. BC has been the catalyst that allowed him to rebuild his life; put his family back together; and live a godly life with a bright future. Again BC means many things to many people and you will get out of it what you put in.
Volunteers and donations are the lifeblood of Builders Care, without both we could not exist. Our goal is to allow someone to have a first hand volunteer experience or to see the TV show in efforts to move them to monetarily support the mission.
I am often asked about the vision for the future. The truth is I don't know. I know not to get ahead of God and I am scared to get too far behind him. I believe he will continue to support his people. One of the most exciting developments is that we have trained five groups from other cities as how to start and run a Builders Care and they are making a difference in their communities. I think that the future involves training others to start a Builders Care in their communities.
Come see me or email me at BWilson@BuildersCare.org maybe you can start a BC for your community.
His charisma is contagious, and the folks at Builders Care count on it. Sixty-five year old retiree David Vartanian has served others most of his life. But don't call him David, and definitely not Mr. Vartanian. He prefers "Uncle Dave."
"Uncle Dave" Vartanian has been volunteering with Builders Care since it was formed in 2001 and has been there to assist them with anything they have needed. His "can do" attitude and positive energy is what keeps their volunteers going. He not only takes time to make sure the volunteers are okay, but also the Builders care staff. He even pops into their office with Turkish coffee and cookies for everyone often.
An Armenian native, he served in the U.S. Army. After his younger years as an actor, he used his filmmaking skills to help churches and other charitable organizations produce promotional videos. During his 15 years on mission trips delivering medicine to many remote areas of the world, his love to serve others was overwhelming.
Uncle Dave's unselfishness has been evident his whole life. As the oldest son, he took care of his family after his father died. Today he cares for his wife, children and his elderly mother, visiting her every day for breakfast before heading off to help even more people.
