Habitat for Humanity and De Young Properties make dreams true

The De Young Properties team and Habitat for Humanity Fresno County staff members and volunteers pose for a photo in front of the Johnson home, Saturday, July 28, 2018. CONTRIBUTED BY TAYLOR MOSHER/COHEN COMMUNICATIONS

Habitat for Humanity Fresno County partnered with De Young Properties to help a Clovis family achieve its dream of homeownership.

Volunteers and staff members from the two organizations came together on Saturday, July 28 to install energy efficient Anlin windows on the Johnson family’s new home.

“This family represents the American dream of homeownership coming true, the fruit of faithful supporters – from individual and corporate donors, like De Young Properties, we are not only changing lives for generations to come, we are changing the footprint of the neighborhoods we invest in each and every single day,” said Matthew Grundy, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Fresno.

De Young Properties partnered with Anlin, a window manufacturer in Clovis, to purchase Alnin windows and have them installed in the home for Habitat.

“This is just a really fun and exciting day,” said Ryan De Young, President of De Young Properties. “We build a lot of homes on a day-to-day basis, but today our team – even some of our team members that aren’t normally out in the field – get to actually build a home for a family in Clovis.”

De Young added that the energy efficient windows make the home more affordable.

“One of the coolest things is that we are a zero energy home builder,” De Young said. “That means that with these extremely energy efficient windows, these homes are gonna be that much more affordable for the families who live in these homes because their energy bill is gonna be driving down.”

De Young said his team has worked with Habitat for Humanity on other projects, but being able to work with them side-by-side is something new and it’s something he hopes to do a lot more of.

“Habitat for Humanity is a heartwarming organization,” De Young said. “What they do and how they impact families’ lives is just amazing. To be a part of that is humbling and exciting.”

Sarah Pedelty, volunteer coordinator at Habitat for Humanity, also hopes the partnership lives for a long time.

“Our partnership with De Young is very important to us here at Habitat,” Pedelty said. “Not only are they out here this morning on a Saturday installing windows they donated, but they have also been with us through the entire process and even helped us surprise the Johnson family when we announced they’re going to be the homeowners.”

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