CINCINNATI –This sum­mer has been the hottest on record, but despite the swel­ter­ing heat, Habi­tat for Human­ity lead­ers, vol­un­teers, and fam­i­lies are now more active than ever in the greater Cincin­nati com­mu­nity. The Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity (www.cincinnatihabitat.org) and Mill­creek Val­ley Habi­tat chap­ters are announc­ing their merger. The Mill­creek Val­ley chap­ter has served north­ern Hamil­ton County since 1989 and has built over 40 homes. The merger will allow both groups to pool their resources, uti­lize a stronger base, and more effec­tively coor­di­nate vol­un­teer efforts through­out the greater Cincin­nati area.

The Cincin­nati and Mill­creek Val­ley chap­ters have part­nered on a num­ber of projects in the past, and the lead­er­ship of both orga­ni­za­tions decided Hamil­ton County would be bet­ter served by one Habi­tat for Human­ity affil­i­ate in order to have more of an impact on the greater Cincin­nati com­mu­nity. The recent merger made it pos­si­ble to com­plete two home rehabs in Col­erain Town­ship using neigh­bor­hood sta­bi­liza­tion dol­lars from Hamil­ton County. Fur­ther­more, hav­ing one affil­i­ate that serves the Hamil­ton County area will help reduce pub­lic con­fu­sion around mul­ti­ple affil­i­ates and stream­line vol­un­teer efforts.

Lead­ers and vol­un­teers from the Mill­creek Val­ley chap­ter are already par­tic­i­pat­ing with Cincin­nati Habi­tat, and together are work­ing to strengthen rela­tion­ships with churches, busi­nesses, and vol­un­teer groups in north­ern Hamil­ton County.

“We are extremely excited about this merger,” said Cincin­nati Habi­tat Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Ed Lee. “The merger will help us to bet­ter serve Hamil­ton County and help many more fam­i­lies in need. By com­bin­ing both groups’ fan­tas­tic vol­un­teers and resources, we will be able to strengthen our mis­sion and move towards erad­i­cat­ing sub­stan­dard hous­ing in the greater Cincin­nati community.”

Cincin­nati Habi­tat will build and rehab 14 homes this year, includ­ing four in Col­erain Town­ship, which was for­mally served by the Mill­creek Val­ley Chapter.

For more infor­ma­tion on Cincin­nati Habi­tat or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org, fol­low Cincin­nati Habi­tat on twit­ter at http://twitter.com/CincyHabitat, or like Cincin­nati Habi­tat on Face­book at http://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiHabitat.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 220 homes in neigh­bor­hoods that include Avon­dale, Clifton, Colum­bia Tus­cu­lum, Evanston, Har­ri­son, Hyde Park, Lin­coln Heights, Lock­land, Madis­onville, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Wash­ing­ton, North Fair­mount, North­side, Oak­ley, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill, South Cum­minsville, South Fair­mount, Wal­nut Hills, West­wood and Win­ton Place, among oth­ers.  For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

BLUE ASH, Ohio– Park­ers Blue Ash Grill (http://www.selectrestaurants.com/parkersblue/index.html) has some excit­ing new devel­op­ments cook­ing this fall. In addi­tion to win­ning four awards at the “Best Of Taste” com­pe­ti­tion this past week­end, which leads up to the annual Taste of Blue Ash Aug. 27–29, Park­ers is get­ting a facelift with sev­eral notable ren­o­va­tions and addi­tions, includ­ing a new patio area.

As part of the “Best of Taste” com­pe­ti­tion, Park­ers won the top award—700 WLW’s Best of Taste for Park­ers’ Brulee Cheese­cake. The restau­rant also received Mayor’s Choice for Dyna­mite Sticks, Hon­or­able Men­tion for Best Appe­tizer for Dyna­mite Sticks, and Hon­or­able Men­tion for Best Dessert for Brulee Cheesecake.

Park­ers will take a short break and close for ren­o­va­tions Aug. 16 — 22. The ren­o­va­tions will include new car­pet through­out the entire restau­rant, a new patio area, which will seat 36, and 150-year-old reclaimed wood floor­ing through­out the restau­rant. Park­ers will re-open for busi­ness on Aug. 23.

The restau­rant will also fea­ture sev­eral new menu items, to be intro­duced through­out the remain­der of August and into Sep­tem­ber. And area food­ies will soon learn who’s behind Park­ers’ delec­table new offerings.

In the mean­time, Park­ers fans can find some of their favorite Park­ers dishes—Parkers Dyna­mite Sticks and Park­ers Brulee Cheesecake—along with one new offering—Bourbon Bar­rel Chip Smoked BBQ—at this year’s Taste of Blue Ash, Aug. 27 — 29, at the Blue Ash Towne Square. Visit http://www.blueash.com/content/87/195/287/659/default.aspx for more infor­ma­tion about Taste of Blue Ash.

About Park­ers Blue Ash Grill

A top restau­rant in sub­ur­ban Cincin­nati, Ohio, Park­ers Blue Ash Grill (http://www.selectrestaurants.com/parkersblue/index.html) is a full-service, upscale, tra­di­tional steak and seafood restau­rant and bar serv­ing lunch, din­ner, brunch and pri­vate func­tions. It’s a favorite place to eat for the whole fam­ily. Park­ers Blue Ash Grill is housed in a free-standing build­ing, sim­i­lar in style to those of the Ken­tucky Thor­ough­bred Horse Farms, com­plete with deep brown tim­bers, four invit­ing fire­places, and race horse mem­o­ra­bilia. Its five sep­a­rate din­ing rooms with 215 seats and a 65-seat bar lounge offer some­thing for everyone.

CINCINNATI –Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity (www.cincinnatihabitat.org) has been very busy. In the last few months, they have real­ized sev­eral new and excit­ing devel­op­ments within their orga­ni­za­tion, includ­ing a new Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, a new office build­ing and ware­house, the open­ing of the affiliate’s first ReStore and the merger of the Cincin­nati and Mill­creek Val­ley affil­i­ates. Cincin­nati Habi­tat would like to wel­come the pub­lic to a spe­cial open house at their new loca­tion and ReStore at 4910 Para Drive in Bond Hill to learn more about these devel­op­ments and give back to another great local orga­ni­za­tion on Sat­ur­day, August 7 from 2–6 p.m.

Cincin­nati Habi­tat is built on the premise of sta­bi­liz­ing the home envi­ron­ment by pro­vid­ing a safe and secure place for a fam­ily to thrive in. So, for this event, they are part­ner­ing with the Com­pass Retreat Cen­ter (http://compassretreatcenter.org/) to help pro­vide mil­i­tary fam­i­lies with Fam­ily Fun Night Kits, which help mil­i­tary fam­i­lies spend qual­ity time together. Habi­tat is ask­ing atten­dees to donate items that can be included in the Fam­ily Fun Night Kits, such as board games, gift cer­tifi­cates to national movie chains, microwave pop­corn and gift cer­tifi­cates for pizza. A com­plete list of needed items can be seen here http://cincinnati-habitat.org/news/OpenHouseList.html.

Dur­ing the Open House, Cincin­nati Habi­tat will con­duct tours through the entire new facil­ity. Atten­dees will also have the oppor­tu­nity to learn about the new green build hap­pen­ing in Col­lege Hill. Kids can par­tic­i­pate in a col­or­ing con­test, in which the win­ning pic­ture will be fea­tured on Habitat’s web­site and in the next newslet­ter. Job Corps will pro­vide food and refreshments.

The Com­pass Retreat Cen­ter was started by Lisa Dun­ster, a vet­eran of the first Gulf War, after see­ing first-hand the chal­lenges fam­i­lies face when rel­a­tives return from deploy­ment. The Com­pass Retreat Cen­ter helps National Guard mem­bers, Reservists, spouses, and their fam­i­lies to rebuild com­mit­ments to self, fam­ily, and com­mu­nity, reju­ve­nate rela­tion­ships, and max­i­mize the poten­tial for healthy rein­te­gra­tion fol­low­ing deployment.

“We are so proud to be a part of this pro­gram. So often soci­ety ignores the issues of sol­diers return­ing home from war and the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll it takes on them,” said Marissa Woodly, Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, Cincin­nati Habi­tat.  “Some­times peo­ple have a very hard time after they return. This pro­gram helps indi­vid­u­als achieve a sense of nor­malcy and ulti­mately helps fam­i­lies get back to being fam­i­lies.”

For more infor­ma­tion about the Com­pass Retreat Cen­ter, visit http://compassretreatcenter.org/.

For more infor­ma­tion on Cincin­nati Habi­tat or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org, fol­low Cincin­nati Habi­tat on twit­ter at http://twitter.com/CincyHabitat, or like Cincin­nati Habi­tat on Face­book at http://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiHabitat.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 220 homes in neigh­bor­hoods that include Avon­dale, Clifton, Colum­bia Tus­cu­lum, Evanston, Har­ri­son, Hyde Park, Lin­coln Heights, Lock­land, Madis­onville, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Wash­ing­ton, North Fair­mount, North­side, Oak­ley, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill, South Cum­minsville, South Fair­mount, Wal­nut Hills, West­wood and Win­ton Place, among oth­ers.  For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. —Cham­pion Win­dow (www.ChampionFactoryDirect.com) of Okla­homa City received the 2010 Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau (BBB) Torch Award for Cus­tomer Ser­vice and Ethics in the Mar­ket­place and the Okla­homan Read­ers’ Choice Award this past week­end for best win­dow com­pany. Cham­pion Win­dow is head­quar­tered in Cincin­nati, Ohio.

The highly respected BBB Torch Awards honor accred­ited busi­nesses in cer­tain areas that excel in eth­i­cal con­duct and cus­tomer ser­vice. The BBB con­sid­ers the num­bers of com­plaints and inquiries, the size and type of busi­ness, the time in busi­ness and mem­ber­ship, the gen­eral dis­po­si­tion of any dis­putes filed against the busi­ness, reli­able adver­tis­ing and sev­eral other fac­tors when choos­ing recip­i­ents. The Okla­homa City retail loca­tion received the award pre­vi­ously in 2006.

The Okla­homan Read­ers’ Choice Awards are voted on by read­ers of The Okla­homan news­pa­per each year and cover all major busi­ness cat­e­gories from Best Restau­rant and Best Shop­ping to Best Home­builder. Cham­pion Win­dow of Okla­homa City has won Best Win­dow Com­pany for the past five con­sec­u­tive years and six out of the last seven years.

“These awards are a true reflec­tion of the Okla­homa City Cham­pion team and a tes­ta­ment to the con­sis­tency and level of our skill and work ethic,” said Cham­pion Divi­sion Man­ager Brett Clax­ton. “We are thrilled the BBB and the read­ers of The Okla­homan chose to honor us. We take pride in this com­pany, and that is evi­dent in how we com­mu­ni­cate with and treat our customers.”

For more infor­ma­tion about the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau Torch Awards, visit http://oklahomacity.bbb.org/. For a com­plete list of the Okla­homan Read­ers’ Choice Awards, visit http://newsok.com/theoklahoman/readerschoice.

About Cham­pion Win­dow Man­u­fac­tur­ing & Sup­ply Co., L.L.C. (“Cham­pion”)
Started in 1953, Cham­pion is the nation’s lead­ing home improve­ment com­pany. Cham­pion builds and installs more vinyl replace­ment win­dows, entry doors, patio rooms and sid­ing than any other com­pany in the United States, with more than 40,000 home­own­ers join­ing the ranks of cus­tomers on an annual basis. Champion’s energy-efficient prod­ucts and com­mit­ment to the green build­ing move­ment help con­sumers save money on their util­ity bills year-round. Champion’s con­trol over every aspect of man­u­fac­tur­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion, instal­la­tion and ser­vic­ing pro­vides a sin­gle source of account­abil­ity for its cus­tomers, remov­ing all con­cerns about who is respon­si­ble for their home improve­ment project. The com­pany oper­ates 77 retail show­rooms nation­wide and fac­to­ries in Cincin­nati, Ohio, and Den­ver, Colo. For more infor­ma­tion, visit Champion’s web­site at www.ChampionFactoryDirect.com.

CINCINNATI–Toy­ota buy­ers can now enjoy the “ulti­mate expe­ri­ence” in cus­tomer ser­vice at Beech­mont Toyota’s new cutting-edge facil­ity. Beech­mont Toy­ota is announc­ing that its new relo­cated deal­er­ship and show­room will be open to the pub­lic on Mon­day, Aug. 2. The new deal­er­ship is located at 8667 Beech­mont Ave., a mile and a half east of their pre­vi­ous loca­tion. The Dealership’s grand open­ing will occur later this fall.

Beech­mont Toy­ota chose to expand its facil­ity in order to sup­port the over­whelm­ing cus­tomer response they have received from their Life Care Plus life­time war­ranty, which pro­vides life­time cov­er­age on a vehi­cle pur­chased at Beech­mont Toy­ota for as long as the orig­i­nal cus­tomer owns the vehicle.

To help meet the dealership’s demands and com­mit­ment to pre­mier cus­tomer ser­vice, the new deal­er­ship will cel­e­brate the cre­ation of approx­i­mately 33 new jobs for both sales and ser­vice pro­fes­sion­als in the Greater Cincin­nati area, includ­ing a ded­i­cated Inter­net Sales staff, led by Steve Lan­g­ley, who pre­vi­ously worked as a Sup­plier for Toy­ota and as a ven­dor to the deal­er­ship net­work. A 20-year auto­mo­tive vet­eran, Lan­g­ley was respon­si­ble for sev­eral aspects of Project Plan­ning and Man­age­ment in his role as ven­dor to Toy­ota. In this role, he devel­oped the over­all new vehi­cle project mas­ter sched­ule and coor­di­nated the sup­port of pro­duc­tion local­iza­tion from Japan to the United States. Most recently, Lan­g­ley worked at OneCom­mand – Rela­tion­ship Per­for­mance Mar­ket­ing, where he trained deal­ers on multi-channel com­mu­ni­ca­tion best prac­tices and strate­gies to sup­port new cus­tomers and cus­tomer retention.

The deal­er­ship, which will be open seven days a week, will also include numer­ous ser­vice, sales, and tech­nol­ogy improve­ments, which will be announced at a later date. For instance, cus­tomers will be able to sched­ule main­te­nance appoint­ments online. And in total, the new facil­ity houses 31 ser­vice bays.

“With this new deal­er­ship, it is the cus­tomer who truly wins,” said Far­lon Smith, Gen­eral Man­ager, Beech­mont Toy­ota. “From the tech­nol­ogy advance­ments to the expanded ser­vice area to the vari­ety of customer-first ameni­ties, it’s about how we can bet­ter serve our cus­tomers and get them in and out quickly and effi­ciently. We want our sales and ser­vice cus­tomers to have the Beech­mont Toy­ota Ulti­mate Experience.”

As part of Beech­mont Toyota’s grand open­ing event to be held this fall, the deal­er­ship plans to include a clas­sic Toy­ota Car Show, which will fea­ture both factory-restored and cus­tomized Toy­ota vehi­cles from the past. Stay tuned in the next few months for more details.

About Beech­mont Toyota

Beech­mont Toy­ota is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing the high­est lev­els of cus­tomer ser­vice for sales and ser­vice to its cus­tomers. Beech­mont Toyota’s staff of auto­mo­tive pro­fes­sion­als takes pride in rep­re­sent­ing the Toy­ota brand, and is well versed in the inno­v­a­tive design, advanced tech­nol­ogy, and supe­rior per­for­mance that the brand rep­re­sents. For more infor­ma­tion, visit http://www.beechmonttoyota.com/.

CINCINNATI – Sup­port­ing Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity never looked so good. Cincin­nati Habi­tat (www.cincinnatihabitat.org) will be on hand at the annual Fes­ti­val in Sycamore to pro­mote its mis­sion of elim­i­nat­ing sub­stan­dard hous­ing through­out Cincin­nati and sell coupon books that offer sav­ings at over 60 stores in Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre. Cincin­nati Habi­tat will be on site host­ing a booth at the annual free fes­ti­val, which will fea­ture food, games, rides, and music Fri­day, July 16, and Sat­ur­day, July 17.

Cincin­nati Habi­tat has teamed up with Gen­eral Growth Prop­er­ties, which man­ages Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre as well as numer­ous malls across the coun­try, to sell coupon books in sup­port of Cincin­nati Habitat’s mis­sion. The $5 coupon book con­tains coupons total­ing more than $200 worth of sav­ings, for more than 60 retail­ers inside Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre, along with sav­ings at Cincin­nati Habitat’s ReStore, located at 4910 Para Drive in Bond Hill. One hun­dred per­cent (100%) of the pro­ceeds will ben­e­fit Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity.

“This coupon book is a cre­ative way to pro­mote Cincin­nati Habitat’s mis­sion and begin our part­ner­ship with Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre and Gen­eral Growth Prop­er­ties,” said Marissa Woodly, Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, Cincin­nati Habi­tat. “We know not every­one nec­es­sar­ily has time to vol­un­teer or has a lot of money to donate. This is a sim­ple way peo­ple can show their sup­port for Habitat’s efforts in the com­mu­nity. We’re so grate­ful to Ken­wood and its retail­ers for their sup­port and are look­ing for­ward to the fes­ti­val where we’re expect­ing a great turnout.” Also, just for stop­ping by Cincin­nati Habitat’s booth, vis­i­tors will be entered to win a gift bas­ket worth almost $500, includ­ing a $250 gift card to Ken­wood Towne Centre.

For those unable to attend the fes­ti­val, coupon books will also be avail­able for pur­chase at the Guest Ser­vices counter in Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre, Cincin­nati Habitat’s ReStore, and at select con­struc­tion sites. Coupon books are valid through 2010.  Be on the look out for more ways to sup­port Habitat’s local efforts through Ken­wood Towne Cen­tre and at Gen­eral Growth Prop­er­ties’ other malls across the country.

For more infor­ma­tion on Cincin­nati Habi­tat or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org, fol­low Cincin­nati Habi­tat on twit­ter at http://twitter.com/CincyHabitat, or like Cincin­nati Habi­tat on Face­book at http://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiHabitat.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 220 homes in neigh­bor­hoods that include Avon­dale, Clifton, Colum­bia Tus­cu­lum, Evanston, Har­ri­son, Hyde Park, Lin­coln Heights, Lock­land, Madis­onville, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Wash­ing­ton, North Fair­mount, North­side, Oak­ley, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill, South Cum­minsville, South Fair­mount, Wal­nut Hills, West­wood and Win­ton Place, among oth­ers.  For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

CINCINNATI – Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity (www.cincinnatihabitat.org) is set to begin con­struc­tion on two homes in Col­lege Hill.  The Holzberger Fam­ily Human­i­tar­ian Foun­da­tion, Cross­roads Church, an anony­mous donor, and Xavier Uni­ver­sity are pro­vid­ing funds and vol­un­teers to help build and rehab the homes.  The dou­ble house con­struc­tion kick-off cer­e­mony will be at 8 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, July 10 at 1141 Home­side Ave. Speak­ers will include mem­bers of Cross­roads Church and the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Com­mit­tee on the Envi­ron­ment (AIA COTE). The com­mu­nity and mem­bers of the news media are wel­comed to attend.

The home at 1141 Home­side Ave. will be a new green home designed by AIA COTE. The design is the win­ner of an archi­tec­ture com­pe­ti­tion held last year with Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity, AIA COTE, and other Ohio Habi­tat affil­i­ates. Entries were judged on cost, abil­ity to build, and neigh­bor­hood con­text, in addi­tion to inte­gra­tion of envi­ron­men­tal strate­gies includ­ing impact on the site, water effi­ciency, energy use, mate­r­ial use and indoor envi­ron­men­tal qual­ity. The first place win­ners of each cat­e­gory are being built through­out the 2010 build sea­son in Cincin­nati, Cleve­land and Newark, Ohio, and the designs will be made avail­able to all 70 Habi­tat affil­i­ates in Ohio. An anony­mous donor will spon­sor this Cincin­nati Habi­tat build.

Cross­roads Church mem­bers will vol­un­teer on the AIA COTE home as well as the rehab located at 1189 Home­side Ave., just a few doors down. Over the past three years, Cross­roads vol­un­teers have invested more than 15,000 hours into the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of homes with Cincin­nati Habi­tat, and they expect hun­dreds of vol­un­teers to par­tic­i­pate over the course of this four-month build. Xavier Uni­ver­sity is once again pro­vid­ing their gen­er­ous sup­port through fund­ing and vol­un­teers for their sixth home being built with Cincin­nati Habitat.

The home at 1189 Home­side Ave. will belong to Mar­garet John­son and her two sons James, 9 and William, 3.  John­son and her hus­band came to the United States from Sierra Leone.  Last year, tragedy struck when her hus­band died sud­denly after a stroke leav­ing her to care for their two sons.

“I want Cincin­nati Habi­tat to know that pro­vid­ing a home for my chil­dren is a dream come true, and I wish their father was here to share this dream with us,” said John­son. “Ten years ago, we lived in tents in a refugee camp with lit­tle to no food or water. Buy­ing this home is the oppor­tu­nity of a life time for my fam­ily and will be the key to my sons’ futures.”

The home at 1141 Home­side Ave. will belong to Felita Jor­dan and her two daugh­ters, Chris­tine Cal­loway, 16 and Micah Cal­loway, 12.

“My chil­dren and I are a lov­ing fam­ily and we have been wait­ing all of our lives for an oppor­tu­nity like this to build and buy our own home,” said Jor­dan. “Our cur­rent apart­ment is very crowded and we need more space.  My fam­ily is so excited to have our own home. It is some­thing we have always wanted.”

“Thanks to the effort and sup­port of some great groups and a very gen­er­ous donor, two deserv­ing fam­i­lies will be one step closer to home own­er­ship this week­end,” said Marissa Woodly, Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, Cincin­nati Habi­tat. “We are also hon­ored to receive one of the first afford­able and envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able house mod­els from the AIA COTE design con­test. We look for­ward to build­ing more ‘green’ Habi­tat houses in the Cincin­nati com­mu­nity in the future.”

To qual­ify for their Habi­tat homes, the Jor­dan and John­son fam­i­lies had to meet a vari­ety of cri­te­ria, includ­ing hous­ing need, abil­ity to pay a mort­gage and will­ing­ness to part­ner with Cincin­nati Habi­tat. Part­ner Fam­i­lies will work beside vol­un­teers from Cross­roads Church and Xavier Uni­ver­sity, invest­ing at least 500 hours of sweat equity into the con­struc­tion of their homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat will sell the home to the fam­i­lies with a 0%, 20-year, interest-free mort­gage held by Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity.

For more infor­ma­tion on Cincin­nati Habi­tat or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org, fol­low us on twit­ter http://twitter.com/CincyHabitat, our like us on Face­book http://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiHabitat.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 170 homes in neigh­bor­hoods that include Avon­dale, Clifton, Colum­bia Tus­cu­lum, Evanston, Har­ri­son, Hyde Park, Lin­coln Heights, Lock­land, Madis­onville, Mt. Auburn, Mt. Wash­ing­ton, North Fair­mount, North­side, Oak­ley, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill, South Cum­minsville, South Fair­mount, Wal­nut Hills, West­wood and Win­ton Place, among oth­ers.  For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

CINCINNATI — Mont­gomery Inn is kick­ing off the sum­mer of 2010 with ribs, ribs, and more ribs.  Come out and cel­e­brate Inde­pen­dence Day at one of Mont­gomery Inn’s four area loca­tions with a bot­tom­less plate of the restaurant’s leg­endary ribs and Saratoga chips.

“All You Can Eat” Ribs returns with all-you-can-eat World-Famous Mont­gomery Inn Ribs and Saratoga chips on July 2, 3, 4, and 5.  For $19.95 per per­son, fam­i­lies and friends can indulge in an infi­nite amount of their favorite Cincin­nati ribs over July 4^th weekend.

“Mont­gomery Inn is ready to cel­e­brate sum­mer by pro­vid­ing incred­i­ble value for our loyal cus­tomers across Ohio. We want to thank our fans by bring­ing back what was prob­a­bly the biggest restau­rant pro­mo­tion in the city, and our most pop­u­lar,” said Dean Gre­gory, Mont­gomery Inn Vice Pres­i­dent. “We have the great­est cus­tomers, and I am con­fi­dent we will sur­pass February’s rib totals.”

“All-You-Can-Eat” Ribs is avail­able at all Mont­gomery Inn loca­tions – in Old Mont­gomery (just north of Cincin­nati), in Fort Mitchell, on the Ohio River at the Boathouse restau­rant, and at its newest loca­tion in Dublin (north of Colum­bus). Mont­gomery Inn is open Mon­day through Thurs­day 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fri­day and Sat­ur­day 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (includ­ing on July 4), and Sun­day 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The “All You Can Eat” Ribs and Saratoga chips spe­cial is valid only July 2 — 5, 2010, for dine-in con­sump­tion only (no carry out orders and no doggy bags). All orders are per per­son (no sharing).

About Mont­gomery Inn

Founded by Ted Gre­gory in The Vil­lage of Mont­gomery in 1951, The Mont­gomery Inn and its “World-Famous Ribs” have become a prized jewel din­ing and enter­tain­ment estab­lish­ment for Cincin­nati for more than a half cen­tury. Her­alded by notable Cincin­na­tians, movie stars, and U.S. pres­i­dents, The Mont­gomery Inn treats cus­tomers to pre­mier din­ing expe­ri­ences in three Greater Cincin­nati loca­tions, its newest loca­tion in Dublin (Colum­bus), Ohio, in gro­cery stores through­out the Tris­tate and online at www.montgomeryinn.com.

CINCINNATI – Cham­pion Win­dow and Patio Room Com­pany (www.championfactorydirect.com) was approved on May 27 as one of 33 sup­pli­ers in The U.S. Depart­ment of Energy’s Highly Insu­lat­ing R-5 Win­dows and Low-E Storm Win­dows Vol­ume Pur­chase Pro­gram, part of a multi-year inte­grated strat­egy to trans­form the mar­ket for high-efficiency windows.

Accord­ing to the Depart­ment of Energy’s web­site, the new Vol­ume Pur­chase Pro­gram will facil­i­tate the broader deploy­ment of these win­dows by pair­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers with buy­ers look­ing to pur­chase large vol­umes of win­dows and by set­ting per­for­mance expec­ta­tions for energy effi­cient windows.

“Being involved in this pro­gram and know­ing that the require­ments to be at the top are con­stantly mov­ing, it gets everyone—Champion and other major win­dow companies—to push the enve­lope on what we can do to be more energy effi­cient,” said Danny Mickle, Champion’s Assis­tant Plant Man­ager in charge of Qual­ity Con­trol and Prod­uct Design.

The pro­gram includes both highly insu­lat­ing R-5 (U value 0.2) win­dows and low-E storm win­dows. When replac­ing win­dows, R-5 win­dows can reduce heat loss through the win­dow by 30% to 40% com­pared to a typ­i­cal energy effi­cient R-3 win­dow avail­able today. The sav­ings for R-5 win­dows are a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment over prod­ucts avail­able today. With higher energy per­for­mance win­dows can become an even more cost-effective mea­sure for build­ing retrofits.

Win­dows that are part of the pro­gram must have National Fen­es­tra­tion Rat­ing Coun­cil (NFRC) ther­mal per­for­mance cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and min­i­mum struc­tural cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in accor­dance with the North Amer­i­can Fen­es­tra­tion Stan­dard (NAFS).

The Vol­ume Pur­chase Pro­gram received sig­nif­i­cant inter­est from man­u­fac­tur­ers, the build­ing indus­try, and other key indus­try stake­hold­ers. More than 50 eli­gi­ble pro­pos­als were sub­mit­ted from sup­pli­ers; over 30 sup­pli­ers meet­ing all pro­gram require­ments are cur­rently listed on the Depart­ment of Energy’s website.

Vol­ume pur­chasers of win­dows, includ­ing gov­ern­ment agen­cies, builders, energy retro­fitters, ren­o­va­tors, and weath­er­iza­tion providers, will gain online access to win­dow sell­ers whose prod­ucts are cer­ti­fied to meet the highly insu­lat­ing R-5 and low-E storm win­dows spec­i­fi­ca­tion. Buy­ers can then con­nect directly to the ven­dors’ web­sites to purchase.

To par­tic­i­pate or learn more, visit: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/windowsvolumepurchase/.

About Cham­pion Win­dow and Patio Room Com­pany, Inc.
Started in 1953, Cham­pion Win­dow and Patio Room Com­pany builds and installs more vinyl replace­ment win­dows, entry doors, patio rooms and sid­ing than any other com­pany in the United States. The com­pany oper­ates fac­to­ries in Cincin­nati, OH and Den­ver, CO. Champion’s con­trol over every aspect of man­u­fac­tur­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion, instal­la­tion and ser­vic­ing, removes all cus­tomer con­cerns about who is respon­si­ble for their home improve­ment project. This makes choos­ing Cham­pion the eas­i­est deci­sion in home improve­ment. More infor­ma­tion about their prod­ucts and ser­vices is avail­able at www.championfactorydirect.com.

Fed­eral Neigh­bor­hood Sta­bi­liza­tion Pro­gram to fund both homes;

Com­mis­sioner Pep­per to speak

CINCINNATI – Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity (www.cincinnatihabitat.org) will begin con­struc­tion on two homes this Fri­day in Col­erain Town­ship.  Hamil­ton County and Col­erain Town­ship pro­vided the funds to rehab the two homes through an allo­ca­tion of fed­eral funds from the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Development’s Neigh­bor­hood Sta­bi­liza­tion Pro­gram (NSP).  The dou­ble house con­struc­tion kick-off cer­e­mony will begin at 1 p.m. on Fri­day, June 18, at 10334 Pip­pin Lane. Speak­ers will include Hamil­ton County Com­mis­sioner David Pep­per and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Col­erain Town­ship and Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity. The com­mu­nity and mem­bers of the news media are wel­comed to attend.

“This unique part­ner­ship is cre­at­ing a good home out of a fore­closed prop­erty,” said Com­mis­sioner Pep­per. “Not only does the fam­ily ben­e­fit, but there’s a rip­ple effect that ben­e­fits the sur­round­ing com­mu­nity and our entire county.”

Col­erain Town­ship has been sig­nif­i­cantly affected by the fore­clo­sure issue, with a fore­clo­sure rate sec­ond only to the City of Cincin­nati among Hamil­ton County Com­mu­ni­ties. Col­erain Town­ship intends to uti­lize the NSP funds to reme­di­ate these vacant, fore­closed prop­er­ties, thereby pro­mot­ing prop­erty val­ues and sta­bil­ity in these affected neigh­bor­hoods. Col­erain is a sub-recipient of the NSP funds allo­cated to Hamil­ton County.

“The Town­ship chose to part­ner with Cincin­nati Habi­tat because they have a great rep­u­ta­tion for pro­vid­ing qual­ity hous­ing for under­served pop­u­la­tions for a min­i­mal cost. Part­ner­ing with Habi­tat allows the Town­ship to max­i­mize its use of NSP funds. And, of course, the peo­ple at Habi­tat have been great to work with,” said Susan H. Roschke, Plan­ning & Zon­ing Admin­is­tra­tor, Col­erain Town­ship. “We are excited to see work begin on these two prop­er­ties, as a coop­er­a­tive effort of Col­erain Town­ship, Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity, and Hamil­ton County.”

The home at 10334 Pip­pin Lane will be built in part­ner­ship with the Alice Ward fam­ily.  Alice Ward is a sin­gle mother of four.  When asked to describe her fam­ily, Alice said, “My fam­ily and I are like most other families—very close and lov­ing.  We know how impor­tant it is to put fam­ily first. We are blessed in so many ways and try to be and do our very best at any­thing we do in life.  My kids are all honor roll stu­dents and all have a love for music, my daugh­ters play the flute and vio­lin, and my son the piano.”

About the oppor­tu­nity to build, or in this case rehab, and then buy her own home, Alice said, “Two of my chil­dren have dis­abil­i­ties that require that they have enough space to do phys­i­cal ther­apy exer­cises and store nec­es­sary equip­ment.  Cur­rently, we have a small apart­ment and have an urgent need for space.  It is such a bless­ing for me and my fam­ily to own our own home.”

The sec­ond home being rehabbed in Col­erain by Cincin­nati Habi­tat is located at 10293 Storm Ave. and will belong to the Cheghali and Fatiha Mah­moudi Fam­ily. Cheghali and Fatiha have two young sons. Cheghali is a taxi-cab driver.

“We wish to live in peace and have a won­der­ful life,” Cheghali said.  “We really like peo­ple, talk­ing with them and help­ing oth­ers.  Buy­ing a home was our num­ber one goal, but it wasn’t pos­si­ble because we couldn’t afford a mort­gage.  Through Habi­tat for Human­ity, our dream is becom­ing a real­ity.  We are glad and very excited to enjoy the expe­ri­ence of work­ing on our build site.  We are so tired from mov­ing place to place, and we need an area for our boys to play and more space as they grow up.  This is such a great oppor­tu­nity for our family.”

When each home is com­plete they will be sold to the Mah­moudi and Ward fam­i­lies with a 0%, 25-year, interest-free mort­gage payable to Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity.  Each fam­ily can expect their monthly mort­gage pay­ment to be approx­i­mately $400 (includ­ing clos­ing costs, taxes and insur­ance). To qual­ify for their Habi­tat homes, fam­i­lies have to meet a vari­ety of cri­te­ria, includ­ing hous­ing need, abil­ity to pay a mort­gage, and will­ing­ness to part­ner with Cincin­nati Habi­tat. Part­ner Fam­i­lies will work beside vol­un­teers from Hamil­ton County and Col­erain Town­ship, invest­ing at least 500 hours of sweat equity into the con­struc­tion of their homes.

The Neigh­bor­hood Sta­bi­liza­tion Pro­gram (NSP) was estab­lished for the pur­pose of sta­bi­liz­ing com­mu­ni­ties that have suf­fered from fore­clo­sures and aban­don­ment. Through the pur­chase and rede­vel­op­ment of fore­closed and aban­doned homes and res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties, the goal of the pro­gram is being real­ized. To learn more about Hamil­ton County’s use of NSP funds, visit http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/commdev/v2/StabilizationProgram.asp.

For more infor­ma­tion about Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity or to vol­un­teer, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.

About Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Humanity

Cincin­nati Habi­tat for Human­ity is a non-profit Chris­t­ian hous­ing min­istry that seeks to elim­i­nate sub­stan­dard hous­ing by build­ing and ren­o­vat­ing sim­ple, decent, afford­able homes to sell to low-income fam­i­lies in need. Cincin­nati Habi­tat works in equal part­ner­ship with fam­i­lies, vol­un­teers and donors build­ing a sense of com­mu­nity as well as afford­able hous­ing. Our part­ners include cor­po­ra­tions, churches, foun­da­tions, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­ual donors who donate money, labor and mate­ri­als to fund and build our homes. Cincin­nati Habi­tat has built over 170 homes in neigh­bor­hoods through­out Cincin­nati and Hamil­ton County. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.cincinnatihabitat.org.