Heroes at Home, Rebuilding Together Orange County Start 2011 Renovations

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., April 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Heroes at Home, a program created by Sears Holdings and Rebuilding Together, announced the beginning of their spring 2011 Heroes at Home projects. Heroes at Home is a key initiative for Rebuilding Together, the nation's leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable homeownership, and is dedicated to improving the lives of the military and their families through extensive home rehabilitations.

On April 30th, Rebuilding Together Orange County will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Across the county, over 20 teams will address the affordable housing needs of homeowners during this year's National Rebuilding Day campaign. Three individual veteran households and a nonprofit veteran residential facility will be included in efforts to improve accessibility, make deferred maintenance repairs and restore the living conditions for these veterans.

One major project will focus on the home of a young, veteran family. After Desert Storm and serving two tours in Iraq, this 21 year career veteran retired to a home in need of extensive deferred maintenance and safety repairs.  The veteran's wife is disabled and their children need to be able to thrive in a safer home environment. Work on the house will include structural and general carpentry, safety modifications, electrical repair, painting, restoring the function of backyard barbeque area, yard clean-up and landscaping.  

"Heroes at Home is essential to the mission and vision of Rebuilding Together," said Gary A. Officer, president and CEO of Rebuilding Together. "Sears Holdings has allowed us to engage veterans in communities nationwide and deliver incredible renovations to their homes. This spring, we continue to impact an increasing amount of lives through the Heroes at Home program."

Heroes at Home projects will be completed in more than eighty cities across the country. The projects include renovations for veterans who are unable to live in their current home conditions due to injuries or obstacles that threaten their avenue to a safe and accessible home.

To date, the Heroes at Home program and Sears Holdings have raised over $12 million through a nationwide in-store fund-raising campaign. This is one of the hundreds of projects made possible by these donations.  Rebuilding Together has completed over 795 projects for veteran homeowners across the country.  The success of this program is only expected to rise as more projects begin.

Heroes at Home spring rebuilds are scheduled to begin the first week of April and will continue until June.  

Rebuilding Together Orange County continues to bring volunteers and communities together to improve the homes and lives of those in need.  Rebuilding Day projects are a viable means of preserving existing, affordable housing stock as well as promoting and sustaining health and safety in our communities.  Home modifications are adaptations to the living environment intended to increase ease of use, safety, security, and independence and are offered at no charge to homeowners.  For the past 20 years, in the spirit of "neighbor helping neighbor," Rebuilding Together Orange County has utilized the efforts and enthusiasm of over 25,000 Orange County volunteers at over 1,500 sites, representing a service delivery fair market value of over $10 million.  Contributions to Rebuilding Together Orange County are typically leveraged by a 3:1 ratio with the help of donated materials, services and volunteer hours.  These improvements allow recipients to preserve their home equity and provide a safe livable home while addressing basic human dignity of the homeowner.  

About Rebuilding Together

Rebuilding Together is the nation's leading nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods by providing extensive rehabilitation and modification services to those in need at no cost to those served.  With the help of everyday citizen volunteers, skilled trades people, the support of local business and major corporate partners, Rebuilding Together affiliates in America's largest cities and smallest towns make life considerably better for thousands of low-income homeowners and the communities in which they live by completing 10,000 projects per year. Rebuilding Together has programs dedicated to, energy efficiency, veteran's housing, aging in place and gulf coast reconstruction. 

For more information, visit www.RebuildingTogether.org. You can also follow Rebuilding Together on Twitter @rebldgtogthr or become a fan on Facebook at Facebook.com/RebuildingTogether.  

About Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is the nation's fourth largest broadline retailer with over 4,000 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada.  Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, consumer electronics and automotive repair and maintenance.  Sears Holdings is the 2010 ENERGY STAR® Retail Partner of the Year. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, and a broad apparel offering, including such well-known labels as Lands' End, Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer, as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands.  It also has the Country Living collection, which is offered by Sears and Kmart.  We are the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 11 million service calls made annually.  Sears Holdings Corporation operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation.  For more information, visit Sears Holdings' website at www.searsholdings.com.

SOURCE Rebuilding Together Orange County