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Business & Tech

O'Fallon Chamber to Pitch in on Habitat Build

Team of workers will help effort in St. Peters.

Kim Starbuck thinks it’s important to help others and tries hard to make that fact a reality in her life.

“This particular year, I wanted to really bump that up a little bit,” said the vice-president of “When I heard of the opportunity to participate, I was already familiar with what a great project this is. I thought this is exactly what I’m looking for, opportunities throughout the year to have a chance to make more of a difference.”

What she was looking for turned out to be the creation of a team to help Habitat for Humanity. The initiative, sponsored by the has brought business leaders together to assist in putting up housing for those in need. The team, expected to contain about 20 members, will work on the Enclaves at Eisenhower, a St. Peters Habitat build.

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Laura Badolato, the chamber’s director of member services, said the new team was only the beginning.

“Habitat is just one of the many projects we will support,” said Badolato. “They are just the one we decided to start with.”

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The Eisenhower project is in a 14-home subdivision off Birdie Hills Road. Nine of the homes are already done and another three are under construction.

Ashlee Johnson, executive director of Habitat in St. Charles County, said teams like the one being assembled in O’Fallon are vital to her organization’s work.

“We don’t use any United Way or government funding so we’re out there asking individuals and corporations in St. Charles County to support us so we can build more homes,” she said.

Johnson said Habitat builds are a great way of helping others with the ripple effects of a new home expanding much further than simply the provision of shelter.

“When we do a subdivision like this we see transformational things happening,” she said. “It’s not just about building homes. We’ve had reports just recently of children achieving better grades in school once they were in their homes. We’ve had three homeowners get better paying jobs.”

Badolato said the chamber, which began advertising the effort through its weekly Monday memo last month, has had both members of the chamber and others from the community become involved.

“It’s been both,” she said. “We’ve had members who have stepped up and said, ‘Yeah, we’d definitely like to participate’ and we’ve also had family members of some of the members who have said, ‘Yes, include me on the list. We’d love to help out.’”

The build project will be held on three different days this summer.

“We’re going to send out an email to find out what days of the week work best with their schedule,” she said. “Once we find out what the majority feels we’ll match that with Habitat’s schedule and see when they need the workers to come out.”

She said the effort will give back to participants as much as to those the homes are designed to help.

“It’s really a feel-good initiative,” she said. “We hope they’ll come out, participate, support the chamber, support Habitat and do something good for the community in general.”

Starbuck agrees, noting that her institution is proud to do its part.

“Banks support the people and the communities in which they are located,” she said. “It’s part of our responsibility in representing the bank to support people in various ways.”

But her workplace isn’t the only reason she feels compelled to participate. She’s enjoyed charitable efforts for years.

“Personally, I feel a conviction to try to go above and beyond,” she said. “Many of us have been fortunate and it’s our responsibility to help those who have been less fortunate.”

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