1st American Builders:  A Local Building Company with a BIG HEART

Michael Dean Chadwick is a busy guy. Ten years ago he started 1st American Land and Realty. A few years later he started 1st American Builders. And three years ago, he committed to donate $1 million to the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research by doing what he knows best: building houses. The question some might ask is ‘Why?’

“I live my life with a pay-it-forward motto, and I live my life under the belief of an old biblical scripture that says ‘whatsoever you sow, you reap,’” explains Chadwick. He decided this was a good opportunity to get vendors, suppliers, employees and business partners in the community involved in an effort to find a cure for cancer, a disease that “actually affects everybody I know in one way or another, either indirectly or directly.”

Chadwick was involved in a similar charity home program in the Washington D.C. area with an organization called Youth for Tomorrow.

“We raised $35,000 without really having any idea what we were doing,” Chadwick says. “I used that as a springboard and basis for this idea.” Chadwick figured that building a charity house each year would raise varying amounts of money, depending upon market conditions. “But I thought in ten years we could raise a million dollars. So far, this is our third year, and we’ll be at the $350,000 mark, which puts us right on track.”

Chadwick says the Jimmy V Foundation has been an excellent supporter and partner. Their reassurance of how the donated funds will be used is important to Chadwick. “We’re doing this for lots of reasons, but what I’m specifically so excited about with the V Foundation is they’ve reached a point in their organization where every single dime we give them goes to a grant or goes to research.”

“Every time a vendor gives me $ .25 cents or $25.00 dollars or $25,000, I can look him in the eye and say ‘every penny of this is going to research,’” Chadwick continues. “And that is a very encouraging and exciting thing.”

Photo courtesy of 1st American Builders