First Story

Last week a dream came true for a Redmond mother of two, Amanda Ward. First Story, Hayden Homes and Heart of Oregon Corps all came together to build a home for her family.

Amanda and her 13-year-old daughter Kylee and 11-year-old son Kalvin received the keys to their new Redmond home while a crowd cheered on.

“It’s awesome,” said Kylee.

“They are just so excited, and that has been the happiest part for me, is seeing how happy they are,” said Amanda Ward.

First Story is a non-profit that helps qualified, deserving families that are ready for home ownership, but still lack the resources to own their own home. Homes are provided through a zero down payment and zero interest 30-year home loan. There is a list of about thirty primary partners that donate to the First Story homes, including founder, Hayden Homes.

Nearly thirty at-risk young adults in the Heart of Oregon Corps’ YouthBuild program worked on the home. Heart of Oregon Corps invests in Central Oregon youth by creating “work, learn and earn” opportunities. YouthBuild members work on their education while gaining job skills and serving their community. It’s a Win- Win combination.

“It’s just amazing to see how the whole thing came together,” said Ward. “It helps give them a better future — and gives us a better future.”

Hayden Homes has had a wonderful partnership with both Heart of Oregon Corps and First Story.

At Hayden Homes, employees donate a portion of their paycheck to First Story as well as the donation of time, materials and labor. “We want to make the communities we live in stronger and helping families to own a home is a big part of that,” says CEO Hayden Watson. “These families are now building a more prosperous future.”

To read more about this incredible story download this insert from The Source, or click here to read Kim Tobin’s story on KTVZ.com news.

by Bridget McGinn, for The Bend Bulletin

Hayden Homes, founded in 1989 by Robert Watson, has been building homes and communities in Central Oregon and beyond for more than two decades. Watson’s original vision, “to provide the highest quality home at the lowest possible cost,” has since become part of the company’s mission statement — words that his son, Hayden Watson, current Hayden Homes CEO, continues to stand by.

Today, Hayden continues to take it a step further. In addition to growing Hayden Homes into the largest home builder by volume in Central Oregon, the company is also among the top 50 builders in the nation with communities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Recently honored with the Central Oregon Builders Association’s (COBA) “Builder of the Year” award, Hayden Homes is one in a select group of honorees chosen by its peers. COBA, a nonprofit trade association with a membership that covers all of Crook, Deschutes, Harney and Jefferson counties, had twice as many nominations for the coveted award this year than in previous years.

According to COBA Executive Vice President Tim Knopp, it is not easy to win the award. A selection committee reviews all of the nominations and chooses the recipient based on a clearly defined set of criteria that includes association and membership activities, industry accomplishments and civic activities.

“It is a sought-after award, but difficult to win,” said Knopp. “You can’t win without putting in a lot of time and energy into the community and into the association. And I don’t think you are going to find a builder more involved in the community and more focused on their mission than Hayden Homes.

“They’ve been in business in Central Oregon for 20 years, and they have founded a nonprofit organization First Story) to help people get on the path to home- ownership. They live out their mission even on the nonprofit basis.”

It is this commitment to giving back to the community that Watson is most passionate about.

“… I was raised to give back to the people around me.
It was as simple as helping your neighbor.”

“My parents, Bob and Virginia Watson, were believers in people,” said Watson. “They believed that if you had the opportunity to help someone, that you should. By example, I was raised to give back to the people around me. It was as simple as helping your neighbor. First Story represents that giving spirit that my parents left for myself and Hayden Homes to continue.”

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Dulce Pelayo talks with her son Cristian, 5, right, as her husband, Will, behind, examines their new home’s refrigerator with his niece Friday during an ceremony dedicating the house to the family. The Pelayos’ new home was built by Bend Area Habitat for Humanity and was provided to them by the nonprofit First Story. – Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

By Megan Kehoe / The Bulletin

A picket fence. Flowers blooming in the front yard. A view of a grassy park across the street. A home smelling of fresh paint. These are images Dulce Pelayo, 26, and Will Pelayo, 28, have been dreaming of for eight months, ever since they found out they’d been selected to receive their own home from First Story. Friday, that dream became reality.

“I don’t have words to express how happy I feel today,” Will Pelayo said. “I feel really great.”

The Pelayos received the keys to a brand-new three-bedroom, two-story home on Lancaster Street in northeast Bend. This is the fifth house the local nonprofit organization, First Story, has dedicated to a low-income family in the Bend area since it was founded 13 years ago.

“When you see how much it means to the family, it really leaves you speechless,” Claire Duncan, development director with First Story, said. “It never gets old.”

The Pelayo home came with an interest-free, 30-year loan, which requires the family to pay about $600 a month, First Story Executive Director Shon Rae said.

The home required no down payment from the family.

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