Thank You for Making the Flannel Fling a HUGE Success!

We are very grateful to everyone who joined us for our 5th Annual Flannel Fling last Thursday at the Golden Valley Country Club!  Together, we raised more than $100,000 that will support our work to ensure that all families have a safe place to call home.  THANK YOU!

We would like to send a special thanks to Emcee Matt Muenster and our Planning Committee: Alissa Achterling, Kalsey Beach, Virginia Becker, Steve Frederickson, Megan Garritty, Scott Gilbertson, Silva Helmer, Melissa Johnston, Tom Keljik, Tom Pfannenstiel, Annette Rodriguez, Jeanne Rudelius, Laura Sieberlich, Tony Sjogren, Sara Spiess, Brent Suski, and Laura Thieret.

We would also like to thank videographer Bill L’Herault; Ramp Team videographer Bill Berschneider; and our speakers Armand Peterson – Ramp Crew Leader, Tom McKenna – Veterans’ Advocate at Every Third Saturday, and Milan Mockovak – Volunteer.

Finally, we would like to recognize our Platinum Sponsor Mortenson Construction; Gold Sponsors Highland Bank and Wells Fargo; Silver Sponsors Lejeune Steel Company and Coldwell Banker Burnet; and Bronze Sponsors Bauer Design Build LLC, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of MN, Boulay Financial Advisors LLC, Empirehouse Inc., Steve Frederickson, Greiner Construction, H& B Elevators, Katie and Dana Harms, Innovative Building Concepts, LLC, Tom Keljik and Jennifer Collins, LELCH Audio/Video, Paul Mellblom and Peter Farstad, MidCountry Bank, NRG Energy, Optum Services, Inc., Jane Marie Petty, Danielle Dart and Tom Pfannenstiel, Annette Rodriguez, Chris Schenk, Jasbir Singh, Tony and Stacy Sjogren, Sunrise Bank, and Kate Walthour and Matt Muenster. This event would not have been possible without your support!

Thank you!

Thanks to Empirehouse!

We would like to send a special thank you to Empirehouse for donating and installing new windows for Every Third Saturday!  Last month, we were thrilled to be able to bring Republic Services, Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, Nokomis East Neighborhood Association, MidCountry Bank, Boston Scientific, and Biffs together to support local veterans by making improvements to Every Third Saturday’s soon-to-be new Minneapolis location.  Every Third Saturday provides services to veterans in need and their families.  Every Third Saturday’s facility needed new windows, and Empirehouse stepped in to help!

Empirehouse’s President Mike Gilbert said, “Empirehouse was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help build The Every Third Saturday Headquarters through Rebuilding Together in their efforts to support and assist veterans. We have been able to help support Rebuilding Together for the last three years and have grown to love the passion and great work the organization does to support our community. We would like to thank our fabrication and installation teams as well as our vendors for donating their time and materials to help a great cause!“

Thank you to Empirehouse for support our efforts to help veterans in need!

Power of 100 Donates to Rebuilding Together Twin Cities

We were thrilled to be selected as a recipient of the Power of 100 Southwest!  This incredible organization selects one charity each quarter to receive their donation.  Power of 100 members nominate charitable organizations that benefit the Twin Cities area. At each quarterly meeting, three charities are randomly selected, and the nominating member makes a 5-minute presentation. One charity is chosen by member vote and each member donates $100 to the selected charity.  We are very grateful to Colleen Nagle of Midland Title, who nominated our organization, and to all of the Power of 100 members who support our organization and others doing good work in the Twin Cities!

Ramp Team Completes 49th Project at MACV

Our incredible Ramp Team recently completed their 49th project at a Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV) home that provides transitional housing for veterans. MACV provides comprehensive program and supportive services to homeless veterans, including housing, employment and legal services.

Improving the accessibility of MACV homes is critical to ensuring that they can serve all veterans in our community.  The ramp our volunteers constructed will ensure the home is accessible for veterans living with a disability.

We talked with one of the Ramp Team Leaders, Armand Peterson, about the Ramp Team and how it started.  He said, “The retiree ramp project grew out of initiatives started at the Honeywell Retirees Volunteer Program (HRVP). HRVP dated back to 1979, but its mission was to help retirees find volunteer activities in their communities. The organization did not conduct or sponsor volunteer activities on its own. It was strictly a broker. However, that began to change when Honeywell headquarters was moved to New Jersey after being acquired by Allied Signal. Honeywell reconfigured its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in the early 2000s and streamlined its charitable donations to align more clearly with the company’s business objectives. These were named “Honeywell Hometown Solutions,” and four or five key objectives were defined. “Housing and Shelter” was defined as one of the key objectives, and Honeywell supported it by becoming a national corporate partner of Rebuilding Together. HRVP was urged by local Honeywell personnel to support these initiatives by sponsoring activities relating to the five key objectives. Paul Parrish solicited retiree volunteers for the RTTC Safe at Home programs, and the ramp projects grew out of these original efforts.”

He went on to say, “We often get asked, ‘How many ramps have you guys built?’ One of our problems in answering that question is that, for most of our early days, we just built ramps, with no thought about keeping track of the numbers. Fortunately, Bill Berschneider keeps track of his volunteer efforts, and he came up with a good historical count, and we are now listing the ramp number on communications relative to each new project.”

We are extremely grateful to the Ramp Team for all of their hard work over the years, and we are looking forward to celebrating the 50th ramp project!