The village people: How Love Builds conquers all

Love Builds and it takes a village

When we last wrote about Becky Portlock in the June issue, she was anxiously awaiting the start of her new Love Builds home in Paradise, expecting a move-in date sometime in November. As we’ve come to learn over the past fourteen years of Upgraded Living, a lot can change in a month, and in the world of construction, things tend to take longer than you originally anticipated. It was understandably a breath of fresh air when we found the opposite to be the case in Becky’s build, thanks to the expanded efforts of Academy Mortgage and Lowe’s.

“The town of Paradise is near and dear to us here at Academy,” says Loan Officer Michael Powell. Michael is a resident of Chico and has seen the impact the fire has had on Paradise and neighboring communities firsthand. “There isn’t one person who isn’t personally touched by the story of Paradise and the heroic efforts during and after the devastating fire.” Michael’s feelings were clearly echoed by Academy Mortgage as a whole, who had amassed over 100 volunteers spanning offices from Alaska to Baltimore, each paying their own way to help build Becky a new home. “We call these trips ‘expeditions.’' Academy Mortgage EVP of People Abby Hawkins said, “All of our 242 branches do service in their local communities, but we try to do something extra special on larger service projects away from home. Becky’s story touched all of us, and the turnout has just been incredible. We consider Paradise our community backyard and plan to make as many trips as we can to help those who were victims of the Camp Fire.”

Regional Sales Manager Scott Starr, continued, “We push the members of Academy Mortgage to have the courage to RISE—that is, we encourage them to show resilience, integrity, selflessness, and empathy. This project required all four and was the perfect way for our team to participate in something that gave back. We recently opened a Chico branch of Academy Mortgage in Meriam Park and are working with Fannie Mae to create opportunities for individuals to get back into homes quickly throughout Butte County. The more people we can get into homes and homeownership again, the faster we can bring wealth and prosperity back to community.” army of volunteers to Becky’s build, but they committed financially as well, purchasing a gigantic tool trailer for the project and filling it with over $16,000 in tools, generously sold without profit by Skyway Tools in Chico. The tools purchased will be donated to the Paradise community after the project is finished, creating a sort of tool-library for community members, where they can borrow tools to complete their own projects. To take things one step further, they created a registry to ensure Becky had everything she could possibly need when she moved into her home. They presented the registry to their employees, and they have actively been working to fulfill each item.

“As soon as we committed to the project, everything just started coming together.” Area Manager Dave Waldschmidt said, “It was one miracle after the other, and this buildout has provided us a good launching pad locally to take a bit more ownership of what’s going on in our backyard. We need to own what happened here and invest whatever we can to bring the area back. We’ve committed to a minimum of two trips each year for the following 2-3 years, and we’re excited to see just how far we can go from there.”

To complete their time in Paradise, the Academy Mortgage team also built seven picnic tables, 20 planter boxes, and 14 sheds for Paradise schools, then stuffed each shed full of things students would need for the upcoming school year. “This project has created a deep sense of purpose for all of our employees.” Abby said, “There's no hierarchy here. We leave our titles on the bus and use the experience to better every person here. A number of us—myself included—used this service trip as a summer vacation and brought our families and friends out to help. The experience has truly changed each of our hearts and lives.”

Academy Mortgage’s efforts on Becky’s build were further bolstered by the generosity of Lowe’s Home Improvement, who donated all of the appliances for her home. It wasn’t the first time Lowe’s had helped victims of the Camp Fire either, as Chico Lowe’s Pro Charissa Gorman had helped organize the donation of over $100,000 in shingles to the shed donation project in 2019. Having already worked hand-in-hand with Joelle Chinnock, the partnership with Love Builds was a nobrainer. “Working with someone like Joelle who personally experienced the craziness of the Camp Fire herself, and who continues to have such a big heart, providing so much care and selflessness on project after project, couldn’t have been more rewarding.” Charissa said, “Seeing so many people receive sheds and realizing what it meant to them only made me want to be more involved with the efforts going on up here. It opened my eyes to the true need and encouraged me to reach out to new organizations, vendors, and people to help the thousands of Paradise residents who were still in need. When I learned what Love Builds was trying to do, I took the information to Nick Delaney, my corporate connection, and facilitated their involvement in the project.”

Pro Sales Manager Nick Delaney has been with the company for 20 years and noted how projects like these are exactly why he loves working at Lowe’s. “I took the story to my boss, Jeff Reynolds, and asked him if we could donate the appliances for Becky’s home. He said, ‘that’s all you want to do? Let’s do it big!’” Nick said, “So, we’ve started putting a plan together to make this an ongoing commitment between Lowe’s and Love Builds.”

Redding Store Manager Ian Davis has been with Lowes for 17 years and was instrumental in providing help and resources to Redding during the Carr Fire. He nodded in agreement with Nick and continued, “When Jeff gets his mind around something, he goes after it full steam, and we love being part of that process. He wants corporate to be a big part of the rebuilding process here with boots on the ground, and knowing him, he’ll make it happen.”

Chico Store Manager Jeff Smith has been in retail for the past 28 years and joined forces with Lowe’s in December of 2020. He has spent the last seven months looking for ways to further connect Lowe’s with the communities in Butte County. “We are so thankful for what Love Builds is doing in Paradise, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with them. We know each home is going to need something different, and the horizon is wide open for what we can provide. There are endless opportunities, and we’re working on a gameplan to make the most of each one.” To add to the appliances, Lowe’s recently donated $20,000 worth of windows to Love Builds for use in Becky’s project and others to come.

Proving it truly does take a village, partners like Academy Mortgage and Lowe’s are doing whatever they can to help Love Builds bring hope to Paradise. For more information on Love Builds, their partners, and how to support the rebuild effort in Paradise, visit www.LoveBuildsParadise.com