Atlantic Builders’ Brian Roinestad, scholarship recipients Autumn Townshend and Chase Blough and Germanna’s Bruce Davis.
From Germanna Community College:
Atlantic Builders and its trade partners are donating most of the proceeds from the sale of a new home –a total of $250,000 — to Germanna Community College’s Educational Foundation.
Atlantic Builders has once again completed a new home with its proceeds earmarked to benefit a local charity. For four years now, Atlantic has asked their trade partners and suppliers to donate materials and labor at a reduction in cost or in many instances for free. This year’s charity home has been built in the Avalon Woods community of single-family homes located in Spotsylvania County. One hundred percent of the profit from the sale of the home funds the donation. With this year’s donation, Atlantic and their partners have now given a half a million dollars to Germanna in two years.
For the first time, trade partner employees and their families can directly benefit from scholarships allocated just for them. Ten scholarships per year for the next five years will be dedicated to this purpose. This year’s scholarship recipients are Autumn Townshend and Chase Blough.
Townshend, a 2020 Riverbend High School graduate, is one of the first recipients of the scholarship said she will use it to pursue her associate’s degree at Germanna, then transfer to Virginia Tech to finish her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She’s in an accelerated program at GCC that will allow her to earn her associate degree in one year. She’s a family member of Atlantic Builders partner Falls Run Stone & Stucco.
Chase Blough, a 2020 Orange High School graduate grad, is a family member of Atlantic Builders Partner C&D Drainfield and also works there. He’s studying engineering at Germanna and said he plans to transfer to Virginia Tech to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
“Atlantic Builders‘ trade partners invest so much time and energy into building quality homes, that Atlantic Builders wanted to ensure that an investment is made in them and their families,” said Tom Schoedel, president of Atlantic Builders.
“I’d like to thank Atlantic Builders for many things,” said Bruce Davis, head of Germanna’s Educational Foundation and Bruce Davis, Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Advancement at GCC. “First of all, for allowing us to be their charity house recipient for the second year in a row. That is amazing. Secondly, for coming up with the innovative idea of taking part of the money to set up scholarships specifically for the partners of Atlantic Builders and their families. We thought that was a brilliant idea. Atlantic Builders came up with it pre-COVID, and I think that now that we’ve entered a pandemic it’s even more relevant because there’s a need for so many people to be retrained.”
Brian Roinestad, director of purchasing at Atlantic Builders, said: “I’d like to thank our trade partners, who’ve been exceptionally generous this year, donating supplies, labor, materials. This year’s a bit different in that a significant portion of the total is going toward scholarships for our trade partners and their families. They spend a lot of time developing, building and making our houses look exceptional, so we wanted to make sure there was something we could give back to them.”
“We are so excited to be partnering once again with Atlantic Builders and its trade partners,” said Janet Gullickson, president of Germanna. “I got to meet a few of those trade partners and they are awesome, and I am so grateful this is helping trade partners and their families with a Germanna education. From here you can go anywhere you want and you can be as successful as you want to be. By the way, think about it. When you have a business so generous that they donate the proceeds from two of these beautiful homes, wouldn’t you want to buy a house from them?”
Germanna helps local companies like Atlantic Builders and its trade partners with workforce training and apprenticeships that provide the employees needed to close skills gaps in the industry. GCC trains workers in carpentry, Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) and plumbing.
