Building Hope with Businesses | Crossroads Missions

A Bendix volunteer writing encouragement on a finished wall

The sounds of hammers and nails mix with laughter and praise as a parking lot is turned into a building site for one day. People of all ages have come together to build a home for someone in their community – that recipient might even be swinging a hammer themselves. If you’ve ever attended a Help Build Hope event, this scene is familiar.

What you might not know is these events are not limited to church parking lots – these experiences have spread to schools, businesses, and even local governments across the country. All ages, all walks of life, all people are welcome to serve with Help Build Hope. One business that has hosted Help Build Hope events for many years is Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, based in Avon, Ohio.

History of Service

“As Bendix, our mission through the formation of our Bendix Cares organization is chartered to increase company involvement in the community and raise employee awareness of volunteer opportunities,” explained Erich Neugebauer. “Our focus is on charitable time, fund raising, county interaction, internal Bendix activities, and overall organizational involvement.”

One of the many non-profits Bendix works with is Habitat for Humanity. Since 2015, they have hosted wall building events at both their Avon and Huntington locations. Nearly twenty homes have been built because of this partnership, contributing thousands of volunteer hours and hundreds of volunteers.

“Our community support efforts are firmly rooted in our culture,” said Maria Gutierrez, Bendix senior director of ESG, in an online news release. “Employees across the organization dedicated more volunteer hours to more projects in more ways. It shows that our community support efforts are not one-off events but are part of who we are as an organization.”

Habitat for Humanity volunteers thanking Bendix for the walls to this home

Why Help Build Hope?

“Huntington is our home, and Bendix is enormously proud and grateful to be part of it,” shared Eric Meehan, managing director of operations at Bendix Huntington, on social media. “Giving back to the community drives this company and our people, as evidenced by how the team united and set to work with hammers and nails on the house framing. Never once have I seen my Bendix co-workers hesitate to raise their hand, roll up their sleeves, and pitch in on behalf of our friends and neighbors.”

A Help Build Hope event is a unique opportunity to have your employees serve together, no matter their skill level, all at your own facility. Erich Neugebauer elaborated, “The partnership allows our business to focus on creating the best memories for our people and those we build for, alleviating the major logistics that are needed to make it happen.”

Erich continued, “Help Build Hope has been a partner toward streamlining the needs of supporting Habitat for Humanity for our community in alignment with our company’s opportunities mission. This has brought continued success and consistency to build off of each year.” For the past decade, these events have steadily grown – resulting in more homes, and more employees inspired to volunteer.