FRIDAY FOCUS

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Post Register
By Casey Archibald
carchibald@postregister.com
A
rea home builders are
gearing up for this
years Parade of Homes.
Te Parade kicks of Sept. 19
and runs through Sept. 22. It is
organized by the Eastern Idaho
Homebuilders Association and
will feature 14 homes this year
ranging in size and price. Te
homes are located from Shelley
through Idaho Falls to St. An-
thony.
Visitors will have the oppor-
tunity to see the work of 11
diferent builders in the area by
attending the event.
Jace Vance, a contractor for
JEMCO Construction, and the
president of the Eastern Ida-
ho Homebuilders Association,
said many of the builders keep
their recent designs under
their hat until they reveal their
project to the public during the
Parade.
Generally, we dont sell
many houses at the parade. It
happens, but its more about
making contact with peo-
ple for possibilities down the
road, said Vance. I think a lot
of people come [to the Parade
of Homes] for ideas. If they
are building or are going to be
building in the next few years
they want ideas and references
for possible builders.
Last year around 3,000 peo-
ple toured the homes featured
in the Parade.
Roy Ellis, Vice President of
the Eastern Idaho Homebuild-
ers Association, and the Parade
of Homes Committee Chair-
man, said he expects ticket
sales to increase by 1,000 to
1,500 this year because of the
improving economy.
I hope that people [who
attend the event] are satisfed
and that they feel like they get
their money worth, said Ellis,
We want people to enjoy it
and come back next year. We
have people who come every
year and even plan their va-
cations around the Parade of
Homes.
Tickets for the Parade of
Homes may be purchased at any
of the homes on the list for $10
on the day of the event, or before
the parade with a buy-one-get-
one-free discount from any of
the major sponsors.
Te major sponsors are BMC
West, Citizens Community
Bank, Home Lighting Center,
Idaho Central Credit Union
and Intermountain Gas Com-
pany. Tickets are also available
at Merlins TV.
Visitors will have the oppor-
tunity to vote for their favor-
ite home and be entered for a
chance to win a gas grill from
Ferguson in the process. Bal-
lots will be available for each
visitor to vote for the Peoples
Choice Award. Te ballots
can be turned in at drop boxes
available in each home. Each
person who votes will be en-
tered to win the grill.
Tanya Cromwell, a home de-
signer at Idaho Home Design,
serves on the Parade of Homes
Committee. She guessed that
around 50 percent of attendees
come to get design ideas. She
said many of those participants
end up contacting one of the
builders to either build or re-
model their home.
Building homes is not the
only kind of construction
that comes with the Parade of
Homes. Building relationships
with members of the public is
another important aspect of
the Eastern Idaho Homebuild-
ers Association, according to
Ellis.
Te whole deal with having
a house in the parade is getting
feedback and comments from
the public, said Ellis. It helps
the builders as well, because no
where else in the world can you
get that kind of advertising.
Besides being a great meth-
od of exposure to the public
for local builders, the parade
is also the No. 1 fundraiser for
the Eastern Idaho Homebuild-
ers Association, according to
Vance.
Te association is a non-prof-
it organization, and is run by
almost all volunteers. Te only
paid member of the committee
is the Executive Of cer, Sherri
Biorn, who works year-round
on the event. Vance said Biorn
is an essential part of keeping
things running and organized,
especially when it comes to the
annual Parade.
She is involved in every
step, said Vance, If we didnt
have her we have to do it all on
our own. She is the most im-
portant piece of the puzzle and
keeps us all headed in the right
direction.
Vance explained that funds
raised from the Parade of
Homes help support the East-
ern Idaho Homebuilders As-
sociation in a variety of ways,
but the basic goal of the orga-
nization is to protect those in-
volved in building homes.
Our association is a
watchdog for builders and
homeowners, said Vance.
Our goal is to make sure
that the laws that are being
put into place dont hurt or
infringe on the rights of the
people in our industry. We
also want to make sure nothing
is put into place that makes it so
people cant aford to buy home.
Vance said if there is a bat-
tle that the association has to
fght in order to uphold their
role as watchdog for the build-
ing community, they use funds
raised from the Parade of
Homes to protect local build-
ers and homeowners.
Cromwell said even though
the builders involved in the pa-
rade are competitors, they are
also brought together through
their participation in the East-
ern Idaho Home Builders As-
sociation. She said she has even
seen some of them go out to
lunch and help each other out
with some of the issues they are
trying to work through.
We want everybody to be
successful in our association
and thats part of the reason we
want them to be good quality
builders, said Cromwell.
Vance explained that the
builders who are a part of the
association are required to fol-
low a code of ethics in order to
participate.
We have a lot of pride in
what we do, and we believe in
what we do, said Vance. We
want the public to believe in
what we do as well. It is hard
to accomplish that if you dont
have reputable people and
businesses involved in
your association.
We want people
to be involved,
but we also
want to hold
ourselves
to a high
standard.
Contractors build more than just homes for annual event
funds
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hing
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Major sponsors:
Parade of Homes
Sept. 19-22
Hours:
Thursday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets:
$10 each at homes or buy one, get
one free from major sponsors.