Sponsored Content

As part of the ongoing fight to defeat childhood cancer, homebuilder Oakwood Homes will donate all the proceeds from the sale of one of its new homes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The home is currently underway in the Oakwood Homes‘ Wander development, a master-planned community located near the north shore of Utah Lake in Saratoga Springs. The home will be introduced to the public as part of the 2023 Utah Valley Parade of Homes, after which it will be offered for sale.

It is the first home to be constructed in Utah as part of the St. Jude Dream Home Showplace, a program through which new homes are constructed and then sold to raise money for the research hospital.

Located in Memphis, Tennessee, St. Jude is funded by donations. Families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food when their children are accepted as patients there. Treatments developed at St. Jude are shared with other hospitals worldwide.

“We’re hard-pressed to find a better cause to get behind,” said Chris Marino, director of marketing for Oakwood Homes.

In addition to Utah, Oakwood Homes has communities in Colorado and Arizona. The Colorado arm of the homebuilder has partnered with St. Jude through its Dream Home program for 10 years.

When Oakwood Homes employees were approached about bringing the program to Utah, they were excited to join in the effort.

“We were just so impressed by the team at St. Jude and their fight against childhood cancer,” Marino said. “What they’ve done is simply amazing. When (entertainer) Danny Thomas started St. Jude, the survival rate of childhood cancers was 20 percent. If you fast forward to today, the survival rate is now 80 percent.”

The Saratoga Springs Dream Home is a two-story, 3,700-square-foot home with six bedrooms, a finished basement, a three-car garage and a covered patio. Constructed using Oakwood Homes’ Branson floor plan, it features large, open concept living with a luxurious primary suite, spa bath and gourmet cafe kitchen.

While Oakwood Homes is donating the land and the home’s design and framing costs, a great deal of assistance for this project is coming through the homebuilder’s trade partners. Currently, 76 trade partners have signed up to donate time and materials to the home’s construction, providing everything from plumbing and electrical work to excavation and landscaping. “This entire project would not have been possible without the amazing support from our trade partners and national sponsors” said Andrew Nielsen, vice president of operations at Oakwood Homes.

Marino said local support for the project has been outstanding. As part of the fundraiser’s kickoff, Oakwood Homes invited its trade partners to an event where representatives of the homebuilder and St. Jude shared the story of what they were trying to accomplish. Donation boards were set up where people could sign their names to indicate their willingness to participate.

Before an invitation to join the project was even spoken, tradespeople were walking up and signing their names on the boards. “It was such a powerful moment where people were just anxious to get involved,” Marino said.

The public is encouraged to view the home in the Wander development during the Utah Valley Parade of Homes scheduled for June 8-24. More information can be found at uvparade.com. Whoever purchases the home will also enjoy the many amenities that will be part of the Wander neighborhood, including pools, parks and walking trails. For more information, visit oakwoodhomesco.com/region/utah/.

Those not looking to purchase a new home but who would like to contribute to St. Jude may do so by visiting stjude.org/utahshowplace.

“Although this is the first home, this will not be the last,” Marino said. “Our full intention here is that this is the first of many St. Jude homes that we will be building in the state of Utah.”

Sponsored by Oakwood Homes.

Newsletter