- September 13, 2024
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Greg Crawford, the area president of M/I Homes of Sarasota, beamed with pride as he held a check for $140,248 outside a Sweetwater home.
The check represented the biggest donation M/I Homes of Sarasota has donated to Pelotonia, an organization dedicated to providing funding for cancer research.
The donation was a result of the construction of a Sweetwater home. On the inside and out, the M/I Homes’ residence looked like its neighbors.
But this 2,337-square-foot, three-bed, two-and-a-half bathroom home on Savory Mist Circle represented something more than just a new start for a family.
It was a Benefit Home, a house constructed in which the proceeds from the sale were donated to Pelotonia.
On Aug. 26, Crawford presented a check to Pelotonia’s Eric Olsavsky, the vice president of community engagement and partnerships, and Carolyn Appelhans, the director of community engagement.
Crawford, Olsavsky and Appelhans were surrounded by dozens of M/I Homes of Sarasota employees to celebrate the donation.
A sign stood tall in front of the Sweetwater home throughout construction designating the home as a Benefit Home, causing neighbors to have questions. Appelhans said the Benefit Home was an opportunity for more people to learn about Pelotonia and its mission.
The Sweetwater home was the second M/I Homes Benefit Home and the first Benefit Home in Lakewood Ranch. Last year, M/I Homes of Sarasota donated $80,000 through its Benefit Home built in Parrish.
“This is by far our biggest donation and you feel a sense of pride that you’re doing something great for a great cause,” Crawford said. “It’s always rewarding when you do this and you get to finally hand them the giant check.”
Not only did the proceeds of the sale from the Benefit Home go toward M/I Homes’ Donation but more than 50 trade partners working on the home have contributed in some way as well, whether providing materials at a discounted rate or donating labor.
Chad Burlingame, the vice president of purchasing for M/I Homes, said the willingness for the homebuilder’s vendors to contribute to the cause demonstrates their “true partnership” in working together to support a nonprofit benefiting cancer research.
With cancer impacting so many people, Thomas Ryan, a construction manager for M/I Homes, and David Asfur, a senior construction manager at Sweetwater, both said being a small part of a greater cause is rewarding.
Olsavsky said Pelotonia’s funding is not confined to Columbus, Ohio, where the nonprofit has its headquarters. The homebuilder’s donations will go toward research, he said. Pelotonia primarily funds research at James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University, one of the biggest cancer centers in the U.S.
“Research is not confined to the four walls of a laboratory,” he said to the dozens of M/I Homes employees at the check presentation. “You are impacting lives globally.”
The family moving from out of state into the Benefit Home will close on the home Aug. 30. The family went through a walkthrough of the home Aug. 23. The home originally was projected to be completed by Oct. 1, but M/I Homes was able to finish the home months earlier.
“The last final stages, the cosmetic final attention to detail stage, is really what makes or breaks a house as far as what a homeowner sees through their eyes and (Ryan) did a great job wrapping this one up,” Asfur said. “It’s a house we’re proud of.”
Olsavsky said the Benefit Home is not only representative of the “beginning of something new” for the family but could be the beginning of something new for cancer research.
“The proceeds of it are potentially creating a new therapy or a new treatment for someone that’s going to beat cancer,” he said. “There’s a synergy there to take a house and the people behind it and have it go to something so meaningful as cancer research. It’s just really neat.”
