Showcasing “Corporate Leadership in Action” With Great Community Impact:
Presenting CEO Build Home Sponsor Florida Peninsula Insurance Company,
CEO Build Chairman Jerry Fedele,
Alongside Boynton Beach Mayor/City Officials and the CEO Builders
Will Ceremonially Pass the Keys to the Antoine Family

 

WHAT: Climbing the “success ladder of a different kind”, a long and impressive roster of CEOs and senior executives who participated in the inaugural CEO BUILD by Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County will have the privilege of dedicating the home they helped build (through their fundraising $175,000 and on-site volunteer construction hours) for a hard-working, low-income South Palm Beach County family.  Celebrating the unstoppable power of corporate leaders to help transform their community with an inspiring “hand-up, not a hand-out”, they will be on-site to proudly pass the home keys to Gevala Antoine (a longtime cook at Boston’s on the Beach in Delray Beach) and her four children. In respect and a “role reversal of hospitality”, Antoine’s employer Boston’s on the Beach will be serving a celebratory meal following the ceremony to Antoine, her family and all those attending.

Great Interview/Visual Ops: As stakeholders in the creation of the first HFHSPBC “House That CEOs Built” who raised walls and more than $175,000 in funds for the construction materials, the executives built alongside the Antoine family. Living in their new home will be Antoine and her daughters Stephane, 18 years old (Nursing Student at FSU) and Stephie, 17 years old (Atlantic High Student focused on business) and sons Richard, 12 years old (Village Academy Student who wants to be a mechanical engineer) and Ricky, 10 years old (Village Academy Student who wants to be a race car driver).

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, January 19, 4 pm (promptly)
235 Southwest 6th Avenue, Boynton Beach, FL 33435
(parking available at First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach)

WHO: More About The New Homeowners:

Those who have dined at Boston’s on the Beach in Delray Beach, have most likely enjoyed a meal cooked by Antoine, a longtime Boston’s employee and the matriarch of the Antoine family who has earned and purchased the CEO Build home. A dynamic, positive force with a “can do” attitude, Antoine is a former third grade and fourth-grade school teacher, who has a strong work ethic and is the hard-working example for her four children after being widowed. After the loss of her husband, she persevered to give her four academically talented children a better life by applying for Habitat’s rigorous homeownership program culminating in earning a zero-interest mortgage on the Habitat home that she and CEO Builders physically helped to build.

Demonstrating that Habitat is always a “hand up, never a hand out”, Antoine completed Habitat’s required 500 “Sweat Equity” hours and 100 hours of financial literacy classes to earn a zero-interest mortgage to break her family’s poverty cycle.

CITY OFFICIALS: City of Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant, City of Boynton Beach Commissioner (District 3) Christina Romelus, City of Boynton Beach Director of Development Andrew Mack

HFHSPBC LEADERSHIP: Randy Nobles, President & CEO; Kari Oeltjen, Chief Development Officer

CEO BUILDERS: 

    • Jerry Fedele, President & CEO of Boca Raton Regional Hospital who served
      as CEO Build Honorary Chair
    • Paul Adkins, Chairman of Florida Peninsula Insurance Company, representing his company, the CEO Build presenting home sponsor
    • Arthur Canter, CEO, Distinctive Kitchens and Eurocraft Cabinets
    • Doug Mosley, Executive Director, Boca Raton Bowl and HFHSPBC Board Member
    • Ethel Issacs Williams, Senior Vice President, Kaufman Lynn Construction
    • Troy McLellan, CEO & President, Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce
    • Robyn Raphael-Dynan, Director of Operations, RCC Associates
    • Rick Howard, President, Sklar Furnishings and HFHSPBC Immediate Past Board Chair
    • Charles Deyo, CEO, Cendyn
    • Brad Mitchell, District Director, Northwestern Mutual
    • Scott Sullivan, First Vice President, Merrill Lynch and HFHSPBC Board Chair
    • Jay Whelchel, Principal & Founder, Whelchel Partners
    • Patricia Maczko, Regional Manager and Florida Market President,
      Comerica Bank

WHY: The CEO Build initiative:

  • Creates a safe, decent and affordable home for a local, hard-working, low-income family through both financial sponsorship and hands-on building.
  • Helps to break the challenging poverty cycle one family at a time. When Habitat homeowners earn their homes through sweat equity programs and qualifying for interest-free mortgages, it changes the trajectory of entire families for generations because they are the first in their family line to achieve homeownership and be in a position to contribute back to their community.
  • Underscores that sustainable community growth begins with a stable home foundation for families and children. The business community in South Palm Beach County that understands the need to build communities from the ground up, just as they build their companies.
  • Results in 100% of monies raised from initiatives like the HFHSPBC CEO Build are critical to the Habitat “Fund for Humanity” program that helps hard-working, low income families in the South Palm Beach County community who have been unable to get ahead by qualifying for traditional bank mortgages.

To learn more about the HFHSPBC, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization and its CEO and WOMEN Builds and related fundraising initiatives, to register as a future builder and/or team leader and/or volunteer to help fundraise and build, contact Kari Oeltjen, HFHSPBC Chief Development Officer at [email protected] or (561) 819-6070.