Building a giving COMMUNITY
Taber Cares works to make donating time, labor easier
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DMOND — Imagine harnessing the energy a homebuilder pours into a new house — designers, the sales force, people in the field and in the office that keep things humming — and channeling it all in a single direction for charity.
Homes by Taber founders Taber LeBlanc, 40, and his wife, Julie LeBlanc, 39, aim to do just that through the Taber Cares charitable committee.
“One goal of ours was to give back to the community,” Taber LeBlanc said of the program, which launched in January. “We wanted to try to get the whole company involved. Yeah, it’s easy to write a check, but it’s not so easy to put in the service and the time.”
The committee works to make donating time and labor easier for everyone.
“A lot of employees want to volunteer or give to charity, but they don’t know where to start,” Julie LeBlanc said.
It seems to be a natural extension for the LeBlancs, whose lives are deeply entwined in Edmond. High school sweethearts at Edmond North, they married after attending Oklahoma State University and returned to Edmond, where they are raising four children, ranging in ages from 9 to 15.
“The whole goal is not just to give money back, but to get the power — we have 50-plus employees — to try to get our whole organization to give back to the community,” Taber LeBlanc said.
So Taber Cares takes on one charity a month, circulating news of volunteer opportunities that employees can tackle either on company time or their own time.
Employees voted on which charities to support during department meetings last year, an important step.
“It’s a way to give everyone a buy-in into the process,” Taber LeBlanc said
There are a couple of caveats in choosing charities.
“They do have to be Oklahoma-based, and they need to use the majority of the money raised for nonprofit work instead of things like executive salaries,” Julie LeBlanc said.
New ways to help
This grassroots approach not only empowers employees, but it ensures that a wide range of charities get help. In April, they will focus on Dress for Success, which provides a professional wardrobe and employment networking for women working their way out of poverty.
Other charities have ranged from Infant Crisis Services to the Oklahoma Youth Expo to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
“Everyone has their own idea of a worthy charity,” Taber LeBlanc said.
For employees, it offers a chance to cross a few items off the “I-Really-Should” list.
“I think a lot of people have the need or desire to volunteer, but don’t necessarily have the avenue or don’t know how,” said Devon Streetman, who has worked as superintendent for nine months. “A lot of the stuff are things I’ve just now heard about, working for Taber. So yeah, as soon as I heard about it, I was extremely excited to get involved.”
It also gives people a chance to see some of the work quietly going on under the radar. Jessica Werner, lead accounts coordinator, joined her department in touring the YWCA and getting acquainted with its domestic violence shelter program.
“We had no idea there was even a women’s shelter in Oklahoma City until we started looking for charities to represent and to volunteer for,” she said.
The YWCA program not only offers shelter, but programs to help those escaping abuse reclaim their lives through counseling, jobs programs and more. The tour, she said, “was really an eye-opening experience.”
But Taber Cares still writes checks, as well. For each home sold in a given month, Homes by Taber donates $250 to that month’s charity. So, for example, 25 homes sold in February resulted in $6,250 donated the Anna’s House Foundation, which works with children in state custody.
Next up: Possibly getting subcontractors and vendors involved. And maybe another coat drive — last winter, Taber Cares collected about 750 coats.
Homes by Taber is always looking for ways to help, Taber LeBlanc said, and other ideas are on the table.