Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times and Antis Roofing Partner Up for Philanthropic Re-roofing Project

By Piers Dormeyer and EagleView. 

Read about EagleView President, Piers Dormeyer’s, heartwarming retelling of his time spent on a re-roofing retreat. 

15 or so roofing professionals are standing circled around at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times. The camp sits in an isolated, yet scenic part of the San Bernardino Forest. It is used as a retreat for sick children to attend like a summer camp, but they can still gain access to their necessary medical needs. We learned that when this camp opened in 1983, most of the children that came here did not survive. Today, thankfully, 80% of the children that attend this camp do survive. Still, as a father, it’s difficult to fathom the thought of these poor families and their children being diagnosed with horrible diseases that are life threatening. It makes my day-to-day life seem so miniscule in comparison. 

Antis Roofing, CI Services and Shell Roofing organized this event because they are celebrating four years of partnership by reroofing the cabins of the camp ahead of a post-Covid reopening, we’re wearing bright neon orange T-shirts, striped socks and gulping down coffee in the morning even though the temperature is climbing to 106.  

Fred Hill, an ex-Philadelphia Eagle, who founded the first Ronald McDonald House in 1974, is retelling memories of his late daughter Kim who was diagnosed with leukemia at 5 years old. His teammates, general manager Jim Murray, and team owner Leonard Tose rallied around the family. In the aftermath of her successful treatment, the team in 1972 started the Eagles Fly for Leukemia philanthropic program, and Hill, Murray, and teammates co-founded the very first Ronald McDonald House, which opened in Philadelphia in 1974. I’ve spent lots of time with Fred and haven’t once been able to maintain a dry eye. 

A few weeks ago, Charles Antis sent me an email with a recorded video asking me to join him in the reroofing effort. Opportunities to give back, like this, are not the kind of thing you turn down and it’s not because Charles is a great customer, that really has nothing to do with it. Charles is always the guy in the room with a crowd. He’s charitable, forthright and everything he says and does, is with integrity. For Antis Roofing, purpose comes first, and then everything else falls into place. Rudy Gutierrez at Shell and Bill Bailey at CI are similar specimens and equally esteemed. When Elizabeth Walters and I were asked to join this event, there was no hesitation in our humble acceptance. We wanted to celebrate something remarkable and use our position in the industry to tell this story, and with luck, see it duplicated multiple times coast to coast and across the globe. So we flew to L.A., rented a purple car, and drove two hours east to the middle of nowhere. 

The Roofing Alliance, the foundation for the National Roofing Contractors Association partnered with RMHC charities four years ago.  It started with Charles and his association with the Orange County, California house, and with the vision of Bill Good, then CEO of NRCA, was scaled to a national level. The goal was to connect all 165 houses in the U.S. with a roofing contractor that would provide care and maintenance for the roof over each of these buildings. These contractors would provide free maintenance and repairs for their adopted homes and if major repairs or reroofs were needed, the manufacturers and suppliers step in to help.  

To date, Bill has never heard, “no.” GAF and Beacon were onsite today providing material and service to the project. From day one of this collaboration, EagleView’s role has been to provide property data for all 165 locations, so that the contractors can better plan and service the facility’s needs. Also, in the early days, we recruited contractors from our customer base to adopt the homes and feed them back to NRCA. We’ve also supported the local Rochester House and, until COVID restrictions, provided meals and support to the community. In Rochester, some families that are caring for their children undergoing treatment check into an EagleView room. Bob Morgan, of Upstate Roofing and Siding, another EagleView customer, has an eponymous room down the hall. Today, we celebrate the fact that 100% of these homes are under the care of a roofing pro. 

So, to go back to the question Cori posed to the group huddled together as the sun rose over the mountains while we clutched our coffees: As a data services company, we can’t provide materials, and we can’t supply labor. We can’t send a truck over the mountain to deliver shingles to a rooftop. These are things our customers do. We contributed today with our aerial imagery, property insights and roof measurements. But as a company we are committed to so much more. We can use our brand presence to tell a story about how our customers can make a real difference in the world. We can reduce workplace injuries by keeping people off the roof, and we can remove inefficiencies in processes that enable our customers to spend more time and energy on the things that matter. We work to stay involved in the roofing industry so we can help highlight just how much heart the industry has through the stories and experiences of roofers.   

At the end of the day, we’re here in the desert to improve lives, just like the Ronald McDonald House. I’m incredibly proud of the impact we’ve made and of our folks, particularly in Rochester, that have taken the time to support this important charity. EagleView will continue to support our communities & causes that positively impact the world around us, the associations we co-create with, and the collaboration of them together. 

Learn more about EagleView in their MetalCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.eagleview.com. 

Original article source: EagleView