By Hannah Gerken
With a name like Greater Brazos Valley Builders Association, it can be easy to assume they exist only to bring together those working in the industry of building homes. However, the Association serves a much larger group of people; they serve the entire Brazos Valley Community.
Since 2006, GBVBA has participated in three “Builders Blitz” campaigns with Habitat for Humanity in the Angel's Gate subdivision. In only a handful of days, they build several houses from the ground up. In the first campaign, they built 10 homes and at the completion of their most recent campaign, they had completed a total of 26 homes during the three campaigns.
GBVBA focuses a lot of their work on the youth of the community by working with the Boys & Girls Club of the Brazos Valley, Brazos County Youth Livestock Show, Rudder High School Construction Science, Still Creek Boys & Girls Ranch, and many more to help fund programs for leadership development and even offer educational opportunities in construction science.
Other organizations the GBVBA has contributed to are: ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, B/CS Regional Association of Realtors® Walk with Pride, B/CS Chamber of Commerce Junior Leadership Sponsorship, Brazos Valley Children’s Museum, KBTX Food for Families, Christmas Angels, Bryan and College Station ISDs’ Education Foundation, Gary Blair Special Olympics, Hope Pregnancy Center, Hospice Brazos Valley, the Katrina Relief Fund, Operation Finally Homes, Phoebes Home, Project Unity, Radio M.A.S.H Toy Drive, Scotty’s House, Still Creek Boys & Girls Ranch, Texas A&M University Francis Hall Project, and Voices for Children.
“There are so many of our members that are so very dedicated to this community,” says Rosemarie Selman, GBVBA executive officer. “Some are Aggies that came back and are here to stay. Some are multiple generation builders. And it’s not just builders — it’s our community banks, our subcontractors ... and many, many more dedicated members. We are very blessed.”
