When a devastating tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma in May, Yardi’s Stacy Blanchard, a strategic client account executive in the Dallas, Texas, office, was moved to act. She thought of raising funds to donate to a clearinghouse aid agency like the Red Cross or United Way, but decided that what she really wanted to do was help a family, face to face. Utilizing the power of social media, Stacy reached out to a friend in Moore who hadn’t lost her home, but knew many people who had. An estimated 1,150 homes were lost, 24 people died, and $2 billion in damage was incurred in the storm. For Keri and Mike Wilson and their family, losing their home was awful, but the safety of their teenage children, who were home when the tornado touched down and decimated most of their neighborhood, was paramount. Drew and Sydney, their children, took shelter in the laundry room during the storm. It was the only part of the house that remained standing. Sydney’s car ended up upside down in the back yard. Keri Wilson described her home as reduced to “bricks and sticks.” Mobilized to action, Stacy spent time talking to Keri and learning the details of her story. As a mother of two, she was moved by the terror of a fellow mom who wasn’t able to learn for more than two hours whether or not her children were OK. Keri described how when she was finally able to make contact with her parents, who had been able to reach her home, she collapsed in sobbing relief. Once the stress of survival had passed, the Wilsons had to scramble to figure out where they would sleep and how they’d begin replacing a lifetime of household goods and valuables. Focusing...
Mentors Matter
Big Brothers Big Sisters
For Yardi programmer Alexander Graf, spending time each week with his “little brother” should probably not be described as volunteer work. As he talks about his mentee through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program of Santa Barbara County (part of the nonprofit Family Service Agency), Alex tells stories as though he is talking about his own sibling. Hanging out with Jerry, his 10-year-old “little brother”, is clearly not a chore to him at all. Jerry came into Alex’s life just two years ago. Despite a very busy schedule filled with work and community activities, Alex makes time to see him every week. With four siblings and a large extended family, Jerry might not always have the chance to have an adult’s undivided attention focused just on him. During his outings with Alex, that changes. “It’s nice to be a positive influence on someone’s life. And it’s great to see the happiness in kids’ eyes when they get to do something they have never been able to do before. Most of the mentees are from low-income families, and they don’t always get a lot of individual attention,” Alex said. Alex and Jerry enjoy spending time together at the Santa Barbara Zoo, the batting cages, local parks, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Alex has realized that Jerry might not respond if he simply tells him a story, but if you show him how to do something, like a chemistry experiment or how to make a balloon animal, he will be curious and probably want to participate. In turn, Jerry might not ask his Big Brother many questions about his own life, but he loves to tell Alex long, complicated stories that he makes up. Alex’s experience with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program...
Habitat for Humanity
Building Homes and Futures
Sometime in 2014, 12 low-income Santa Barbara families will be able to move into newly constructed homes at Canon Perdido and Milpas streets, structures that they own and built in part with their own sweat equity. The latest project from Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County, the Canon Perdido Homes are the non-profit’s largest construction effort to date, and will allow its residents to leave behind the sub-standard conditions they are currently living in. “This is our largest project to date. These homes will provide housing for 43 people, 20 of whom are children,” said Alex Ramstrum, Development Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County. The project broke ground in mid-December and completion is expected to take about 18 months. Most of the construction will be the work of volunteers and the future homeowners, who will work under the tutelage of a professional contractor foreman and expert craftsmen volunteers. Each adult must contribute 250 hours of labor time toward their future residence. A popular volunteer opportunity for hundreds of community members each year, Habitat needs people power not only to participate in construction projects, but to help staff its ReStore, a retail center for recycled building materials in Goleta, and to participate in “A Brush with Kindness”, which completes exterior maintenance projects for homeowners in need. Here are the income level maximums for Brush with Kindess recipients. Yardi has had several employee “build” days with Habitat. The largest group was a team that worked for a day swinging hammers on the San Pasqual project in 2010. Other groups have worked at the ReStore. Rob Teel , Yardi’s Senior Vice President of Global Solutions, serves on the organization’s Board of Directors. “For me, Habitat is the perfect charity to combine my work, local, and ethical interests. The idea of providing a home for a family not only builds hope for those individuals, but it has a major impact on the health and hope of the surrounding community,” Teel said. Opportunities to volunteer on the Canon Perdido construction project will commence in the spring after underground construction is complete and foundations are laid, Ramstrum said. Interested volunteers can register to donate their time at this link. Donations for the project are still being collected as part of the Building Homes, Building Hope campaign. The development includes 2 three-bedroom units, 8 two-bedroom units, and 2 one-bedrooms, one of which will be accessible to disabled persons. The units will range between 750 and 1,200 square feet each. To qualify for a home in the project, the selected families went through an intensive selection process that included interviews, visit to their current housing situation, and financial review to ensure they met the income criteria for Habitat homeowners. Selected families can make no more than 80 percent of the region’s median income, many make far less. Demonstrating the need for affordable housing in South Santa Barbara County, hundreds of people attended early meetings about the Canon Perdido project, and eventually the 12 families selected were chosen from 115 applications. In addition to contributing 250 hours of labor per person toward their homes, the families will pay off interest-free mortgages carried by Habitat for Humanity. Mortgage costs never exceed 35 percent of residents’ incomes. Yardi Systems has been a corporate supporter of the South Coast’s Habitat chapter since 2007, donating funds toward all three of the non-profit’s local housing projects. Previous Habitat developments are located on the Westside of Santa Barbara on San Pasqual Street and off of Upper State Street on Via Lucero. For the Canon Perdido project, Yardi’s contributions will pay for the doors and windows of the homes, which are designed to meet the environmental standards of Built Green Santa Barbara. Building methods and construction materials will create well-insulated structures that lead to utility savings for the homeowners. The goals is to achieve “net zero” energy usage by...
Yardi Volunteers
North Texas Food Bank
We’ve frequently shared news with you here about Yardi Systems’ numerous donations to various philanthropic causes that help people across the U.S. and beyond. Today we’re focused on an effort of people power by Yardi employees in our Dallas, Texas office. Led by Michael Sheaffer, 20 people from the Customer Service Desk gave their own time on a recent Saturday to volunteer at the North Texas Food Bank. This organization supports hungry families and individuals throughout the North Texas area with healthy and nutritious meals. “Our team discussed options and we all agreed that we are very fortunate to have jobs and to work for Yardi. We determined that we needed to do some sort of outreach where we could directly impact those that were not as fortunate and give back to our local community. The North Texas Food Bank is a very reputable organization that relies on volunteers to ensure they maximize their food and financial donations to help reduce hunger in our local area,” Sheaffer said. During their volunteer day, the Yardi team was packaging nonperishable food items for delivery to seniors. A regular box delivered to these seniors in need helps them supplement limited foodstuffs that they’re able to afford. In just three hours, 16,000 meals had been packaged for donation. “We chose the food bank based on individuals in the group volunteering individually in the past and the impact they were able to make. Our thought was that we would give up a Saturday once a quarter to give back to our community and make sure that we see that there is more to our lives than just the normal 8-5 that we work for Yardi,” said Sheaffer. “Surprisingly, we had almost perfect attendance from our group and we even...
