Ascend Performance Materials and Bay Area Habitat are coming together for Bay Areas first ever Builder Blitz! In honor of Ascends 50th Anniversary Ascend will be sponsoring the build of a $65,000 home as well as providing over 200 volunteers within their company. To make the celebration of their anniversary even more meaningful Ascend will be building the home at their chocolate bayou work site over a two week period followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony October 13 in which the home will then be relocated to a lot in Dickinson, TX. Some of you may be wondering a couple of things, Who is Ascend Materials? What is a Builder Blitz? and Who is the home for? Continue on reading and all of these questions will be answered.
Ascend Performance Materials is a Global Leader in the production of nylon, plastics and synthetic fibers. Look around your home and their products have most likely made up the majority of your surroundings. Your carpet, clothes and personal care products are just a few to name off. Ascend has been awarded numerous times for their protection on the environment as well as their loyalty to their employees. For the third year in a row Ascend earned two separate awards at their chocolate bayou site, The Caring for Texas Award and The CSX Chemical Safety Excellence Award. The Caring for Texas Award recognizes community awareness, emergency response, security and pollution prevention. The CSX Chemical Safety Excellence Award recognizes the companies commitment to safe and hazardous removal. Ascends care and concern doesn’t stop with the environment or the community, this gratitude has extended towards their employees. The Voluntary protective Program Star which is overseen by The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a rigorous inspection on effective work site based safety and health. Alvin TX, Decatur AL, and Pensacola FL are all Ascend sites that hold this star. Through these awards one can see how Ascend takes the time and consideration 
necessary for their employees and the community, so when I came across The Ascend Cares Foundation founded by their VP Andrew Ralston we were even more delighted to have the opportunity to work such a caring company. Ascend Cares was created to provide relief funds to employees of Ascend due to a series of tornadoes that hit northern Alabama. Ascend and Habitat think alike and that is to help and protect the community.
For those of you who are unaware of what a Builders Blitz is let me give you a rundown. It all began in Wake County, NC in 2002. Wake County Habitat and local professional home builder Tom Gipson partnered with twelve other home builders to build twelve homes in a five day period. The ending results were remarkable, all twelve homes were completed in the allotted time. The final cost (apart from the land) to habitat was $84,000. Not only was labor and materials donated, the builders were able to collect $100,000 in cash donations. With such impressive results the Builder Blitz program has progressed every year since then.
Being a part of the Builder Blitz program was an opportunity Felicia Rich and her family couldn’t pass up. Felicia is a single hard working mother of twin ten year old boys. Working as a full time certified nurses aid for mentally handicapped adults at the residences of hope village. In her spare time she earns the 300 hours of ‘sweat equity’ required to qualify for a new Habitat for humanity home, as well as working to complete the financial literacy and home ownership classes. Felicia and her boys are currently living in tight quarters at her mothers house. The twins sleep in what was once Felicia’s room, while Felicia either sleeps on the sofa or shares a bed with her sister. Felicia and her boys are eagerly anticipating the possibility of celebrating Christmas in their new home and having their own individual bedrooms to sleep in.
Mother Teresa says, “Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do…but how much love we put in that action” Like Habitat and Ascend , Felicia puts her love into action everyday both at work and at home.
