Wednesday, July 13, 2005

 

Brown receives builder scholarships

Tyrone resident Reese Brown has been awarded the Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia's first annual Jerry Ballard Scholarship and has won a Home Builders Association of Georgia's Lewis Cenker Scholarship for the second year in a row.

The scholarships were presented at the Association's June meeting held recently at Glendalough Manor in Tyrone.

Brown, the son of Debbie Brown, is a 2003 graduate of Sandy Creek High School. He will be a junior at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta this fall where he is majoring in civil engineering. He plans to eventually transfer to Georgia Tech and pursue a career related to the building industry. This summer, he is working at Jerry Ballard Homes and attending GMC Community College in Union City.

The Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia is a professional organization of home builders and others associated with the building industry. As part of the National Association of Home Builders and the Home Builders Association of Georgia, it serves members in 10 Midwest Georgia counties -- Fayette, Coweta, Spalding, Meriwether, Heard, Pike, Upson, Lamar, Butts and Jasper.

"These scholarships are a tremendous financial help," Brown said. "But no less important is the knowledge that a group of successful entrepreneurs and business people like the members of the Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia and the Home Builders Association of Georgia have given me such a vote of confidence."

This is third year in a row that Brown has won scholarships presented by regional and state home builders associations. He was awarded a Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia scholarship in 2003, and last year received his first Lewis Cenker Scholarship, a scholarship funded by the Home Builders Association of Georgia. The scholarship is named for Lewis Cenker, an Atlanta builder and lawyer who was a founding member of the Home Builders Association of Georgia (HBGA) and its President in 1969. President of the National Association of Home Builders in 1974, Cenker was the only Georgian ever to serve as president of the national association.

This is the first year the HBA of Midwest Georgia has presented the Jerry Ballard Memorial Scholarship named for the founder and president of Jerry Ballard Homes, who died in January of this year.

A highly respected builder in Fayette County since 1979, Ballard was named the Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia's Home Builder of the Year in 1980 and served as president of the organization in 1981. He was awarded the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce's Chet Wells Service award in 1982 and was named the Chamber's Outstanding Business Person in Fayette County in 1986.

In announcing the first winner of the scholarship created in Ballard's name, HBA of Midwest Georgia Executive Officer Sandy Boda said, "Jerry was a unique person and had a special relationship with all who knew him. He touched many lives in different ways… as a mentor, loyal friend and employer. He did not accept mediocrity but pursued excellence in all things and inspired all of those around him to do the same."

The Jerry Ballard Memorial Scholarship will be given annually to a student who is pursuing a career in the building industry.

For more information on the Home Builders Association of Midwest Georgia, contact Executive Officer Sandy Boda at 770-716-7109.