[1]The Five Star Institute [2] President and CEO Ed Delgado announced earlier today at the Five Star Government Forum in Washington, D.C., that the Institute would be partnering with the nation's leading online real estate marketplace, Irvine, California-based Auction.com [3], and national nonprofit Operation Homefront [4] in support of a home donation program that provides mortgage-free homes to veterans.
The home donation program will be featured at the 2015 Five Star Conference and Expo [5], which will take place September 16 to 18 in Dallas, Texas. Five Star has partnered with various non-profit organizations over the last four years to provide approximately $4 million worth of homes to service members. At last year's conference, Five Star presented six wounded veterans with mortgage-free homes.
“The Five Star Institute remains committed to promoting the presentation of mortgage-free homes to veterans through our continuous support of donation programs such as this one,” Delgado said. “This home presentation to veterans program is part of our ongoing mission to raise awareness of the needs of our veterans to obtain housing. We are humbled by the immense level of dedication shown by Auction.com and Operation Homefront in helping us fulfill this mission.”
Auction.com Executive Vice President Rick Sharga was on hand at the Five Star Government Forum on Wednesday to present a donation check for $50,000 in support of the new home donation program.
“We are excited about the opportunity to sponsor this home donation program for the members of our military along with the Five Star Institute in conjunction with Operation Homefront,” Auction.com CEO and co-founder Jeff Frieden said. “There is no one more deserving than our military heroes and their families, and we look forward to working with Five Star and Operation Homefront to help veterans and their families achieve the dream of homeownership.”
Operation Homefront, which is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, has helped thousands of service members and their families with emergency and other financial assistance since it was founded in 2002. Currently, more than 2,50o volunteers nationwide assist Operation Homefront with this effort. The organization's Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO, Tim Farrell, is a retired Air Force officer with more than 23 years of service.
“We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Auction.com for their generosity toward fulfilling the valuable mission of providing mortgage-free homes for veterans,” Farrell said in response to receiving the donation from Auction.com. “We are excited to be working with the Five Star Institute, an organization that has long been committed to preserving the dream of homeownership for our nation's heroes.”
Editor's note: The Five Star Institute is the parent company of DS News and DSNews.com.