Source: www.TurfMagazine.com
STIHL Inc. recently donated 100 battery powered mowers and accessories – valued at $72,000 – to support The Fuller Center for Housing, an affordable housing 501(c)3 nonprofit that partners with families, community leaders, and organizations to build and refurbish homes. The Fuller Center for Housing’s promise is to provide adequate shelter for people in need in more than 75 U.S. communities and 20 countries around the world.
“All the houses we build or restore have something in common — a yard, and yards require maintenance. This gift from STIHL will be of tremendous help to these families as they strive to maintain their new homes,” said David Snell, president of The Fuller Center for Housing. “We’ve learned that one new, well-kept home goes a long way towards improving entire neighborhoods, so the benefit of this gift will go well beyond the new homeowner. We are truly grateful to STIHL for this most generous contribution to making the world a better place for us all.”
“The Fuller Center is a vital resource for those in need,” said Roger Phelps, corporate communications manager for STIHL Inc. “We want to help The Fuller Center’s mission by empowering these families with the products they need to easily maintain their new properties. STIHL battery-powered mowers will allow them to do this with at a low operating cost [no fuel], and with virtually zero ongoing maintenance required.” STIHL Inc. has previously supported the organization through a donation of battery products in 2016.
The Fuller Center provides a hand-up — not a handout — as partner families work alongside volunteers throughout the construction process. In addition to providing this “sweat equity,” partner families repay the costs of materials on terms they can afford, over time, with no interest charged and no profit made. These repayments go into a Fund for Humanity that stays in their local community to help other families get the very same hand-up. In this way, not only are families lifted out of poverty housing, but they also become givers themselves rather than charity cases, allowing them to retain their dignity as they pay it forward. Therefore, donations to The Fuller Center are recycled to be used time and time again.