By Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Bill Wilson, the executive director of Builders Care, loves to tell stories.
He talks about what his organization does, who they have helped, who has helped them and how he would like to say “Thank you.”
Now, a recently donated motor home will give him a great opportunity to say “Thank you” to others while giving him even more experiences to share.
When Wilson first received the motor home, he didn’t know quite what to do with it.
“When the donors came to me and asked me what I would do if I had a mobile home, I said I would sell it and buy water heaters,” he said. “It was too neat and too big of a gift for Builders Care to have a motor home.”
But, then it struck Wilson that this motor home was an opportunity to give back to all those who have helped his organization the last six years.
“There are a lot of folks out there who support Builders Care,” said Wilson. “And I thought, ‘How can we say thank you?’ They aren’t coming to our events, so how do we say thank you to them? That bus will pull right in and we will have a lunch for them. We are calling it the Hospitality Assault Vehicle.”
HKR Inc. donated the motor home.
The bus will be equipped with air conditioning and a big screen television airing information about Builders Care’s mission.
“It will be a mobile ‘This is what Builders Care is about’ wagon,” he said. “We are converting the back room to a storage/kitchen area that will allow us to pull in, have food and grills on board so we can put the awning out and cook for anybody.”
There will be an office, a kitchen, deep freezer and grills, so they can just pull up and have a cookout whenever or wherever they want.
“Part of the Builders Care culture is that we are family,” said Wilson. “Families eat together and I am really big on that. We might have 1,000 hamburgers and drinks on board, so we can just pull out more hamburgers or drinks if we need to.”
The bus has been decorated with photos of people and events gathered over the years.
“The way we designed the outside, it tells the Builders Care story,” said Wilson.
Greg Malloy of MacMedia Graphics designed the wrap, which was installed by Jax Wraps.