BIA's HomeAid Sacramento

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Giving Them Shelter

By Anne Gonzales

Tony Tonso had become weary of nonprofit charities asking for donations. So when a Sacramento children’s shelter said it needed more beds, a cynical Tonso, the regional president for Beazer Homes Northern California, had to be dragged over for a tour of the place. And then he met the children.
    “It was a heartbreaker,” says the gravel-voiced Tonso. “When you go in there, little 5-year-olds, they’re melting your heart. They grab you around the legs and ask you to hold them. They’re very cute and have very, very sad stories.”
    On the spot, Tonso committed Beazer to building a new cottage for the youngest of the home’s charges, children 5 and younger. Through HomeAid Sacramento, the charitable arm of the Building Industry Association, Beazer donated its time and expertise to design and build homey sleeping quarters on the grounds of the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento at Watt Avenue and Auburn Boulevard.
    The Acorn Cottage was dedicated in 2000, and the next year Beazer partnered with Dunmore Homes on another cottage for older children. The two projects increased bed space at the home from 70 to 98, housing a mushrooming population of the county’s abused and neglected children at an 80 percent savings to the shelter.
    David Ballard, executive director of the Children’s Receiving Home, says the shelter didn’t have the money to build the new bed space at the aging center. Without HomeAid, the projects simply wouldn’t have happened. “They really stepped up for us,” Ballard says of HomeAid and the builders. “They made an incredible difference in kids’ lives.”

Continued...

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