Edwin Ness, a 91-year-old veteran who flew 34 missions over Europe as a gunner in a B-14, was struggling to maintain the San Francisco home he has lived in for 50 years. His daughter Linda Bloomquist contacted Rebuilding Together about making some much-needed repairs to Ness’ home and give him something to which he could look forward.
On National Rebuilding Day, April 29, 14 volunteers from Alliance Residential, who partners with Rebuilding Together as part of its Alliance Cares initiative, dedicated seven hours to making repairs at Ness’ home.
Ness (pictured in the center with the hat, glasses and sea lions on his shirt) was just one of the beneficiaries of Alliance Cares. The program has a new structure this year with three categories created based on
Alliance’s business model, housing, and its employees’ passions, the environment and community advocacy.
The company has completed a few regional projects with Rebuilding Together, which provides safe and healthy housing to those in need. In addition to Ness, 13 volunteers from Alliance donated six hours of time along with Navigant Research for Rebuilding Together in Seattle and 13 more gave more than four hours to a project in Phoenix, also on National Rebuilding Day. Alliance’s Asset Engineering department is also working to donate clean and useable materials and equipment when possible.
Alliance Cares is more than just a regional initiative. On April 21, the corporate office had 41 volunteers partner with Keep Phoenix Beautiful for an Earth Day Project that transformed a vacant lot from a site of drugs, graffiti and litter into the beginnings of a community garden and space that will be dedicated to education and sustainability.
Alliance also encourages individual associates to continue supporting these causes as well as charities that are near and dear to their hearts and rolled out a new Volunteer Time Off (VTO) benefit earlier this year that gives up to eight hours of paid time-off to each full-time employee to be able to give back to a charity of their choice. Through Alliance Cares, the company is making an impact on the concept of “home” as well as its local communities and the larger community of Planet Earth.