Making A Difference: Johnson Staff, Local Realtors Pitch In at The Ballard House
The group spent the morning cleaning out and organizing two large community kitchens at The Ballard House, a hospitality house in Katy that provides temporary, no-cost housing for patients and their caregivers who travel to Houston for medical treatment. In addition to rearranging the many cooking tools and labeling cabinets, the volunteers also freshened up guest rooms throughout the facility, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, wiping down counters, and more.
Monica Conchola, Realtor Relations Liaison for Johnson Development’s north Houston communities, called the experience “incredible.”
“Houston is renowned for top-notch medical care, and people travel around the world to be treated,” she said. “What The Ballard House is doing is making this care available to everyone by lessening the burden of where people from out of town — even out of the country — will stay, where they will eat, and where they will settle during their weeks and even months of treatment. It’s an honor to support their noble cause.”
Located on 3 acres, the 20,000-square-foot Ballard House opened in December 2013. Since then, it has housed approximately 23,500 families and provided more than 107,000 nights. Volunteers such as the development teams from Grange, Grand Central Park, Kresston, Jubilee, Woodforest, Everly, Amira, and Briarley, and their Realtor partners have donated approximately 65,000 hours to support their mission.
In addition to donating time and organizing the workday with local real estate offices, Johnson Development donated $2,000 to The Ballard House — enough to pay for a full day of services for their clients.
Johnson Development first donated money and time to The Ballard House through its Realtor volunteer program last year, when a group of 30 cleaned apartments, cooked dinner, and trimmed bushes.
After that initial visit, Executive Director David Brown said he was excited about Johnson Development becoming involved.
“We are so grateful for both the financial support and the willingness by so many to assist with all the things needed in a day to take care of our guests and caregivers. It was very inspiring for our guests to see so many from Johnson assisting and serving with us,” he said.
The Ballard House was one of four area nonprofits Johnson Development, affiliate Johnson Land Ventures, and local Realtors visited last year. Earlier this year, the group volunteered at Boys and Girls Country in Hockley. Plans are in the works to organize workdays at Cy-Hope and Henry’s Sanctuary later this year.
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