'Built Upon a Dream Team' Unveils Special Project in Catonsville

From WMAR & Scripps:

Catonsville, Md. – July 25, 2016 – WMAR ABC2 and a group of local businesses and contractors are teaming up to reveal dramatic improvements to The Children’s Home in Catonsville, MD. The Children’s Home is a non-profit Baltimore area foster home for children ages 13-21 who are there due to abuse, neglect and abandonment. The Children’s Home underwent a physical makeover thanks to the program Built Upon A Dream, and volunteers from the Maryland community. The Children’s Home has received just under $500,000 in goods, services, and donations through Built Upon A Dream which airs on WMAR, the Baltimore affiliate of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP). Based on ABC Network’s popular, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Built Upon a Dream offers local non-profit organizations a chance to greatly improve their facilities. The program hopes to capture some of the spirit and good work of ABC’s Extreme Makeover program and complete renovation projects for organizations in need in the Maryland region.

On Thursday, July 28, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. sponsors and volunteers from the Built Upon a Dream team will join The Children’s Home residents as they unveil their new facility. The Children’s Home is located at 205 Bloomsbury Avenue in Catonsville. The renovations will enable The Children’s Home to better serve the children, families, and local community. An hour-long TV special telling the story of The Children’s Home Dream Build is slated to air on WMAR ABC 2, on Thursday, August 4 at 7:00 p.m.

The Children’s Home has an over 150 year history of serving children in the state of Maryland who are victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment. The Home provides care in a safe, home-like living environment on its suburban campus where they strive to have children feel secure, nurtured and have a sense of belonging. While at the home, children who have suffered emotionally or physically are given the care normally imparted by parents or families that is needed to heal, rebuild their self-esteem and help them grow into healthy, productive young adults. The abandoned Catonsville estate that they purchased in 1919 has an array of different buildings that are constantly in need of maintenance and repair.

This Built Upon a Dream project, benefitting The Children’s Home, included improvements across the 44 acre campus. Workers improved everything from roofing, painting, electrical, fencing, and landscaping at the home. The work was completed by a group of contractors, suppliers and associated companies who make up the Built Upon a Dream Team. All team member companies donated time, labor, materials and supplies to get the job done. Many of the individual corporate donations are valued at more than $25,000. The Built Upon a Dream team includes General Contractor, MacKenzie Contracting Company, Manekin Construction, Fence & Deck Connection, A. Hoffman Awning, Bath Fitter, Cox Roofing, Bank of America, Ruppert Landscape, Thompson Creek, Penza Bailey Architects as well as a number of sub-contractors, suppliers and volunteers.

About WMAR & Scripps - WMAR-TV was the nation’s 11th (and Maryland’s first) television station to sign on-the-air in 1947. The station has been the site of many technological breakthroughs: first with a color film processor for television news and production, and the first zoom camera lens for film and tape cameras. WMAR is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company.

The E.W. Scripps Company serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of television, radio and digital media brands. Scripps is one of the nation’s largest independent TV station owners, with 33 television stations in 24 markets and a reach of nearly one in five U.S. households. It also owns 34 radio stations in eight markets. Scripps also runs an expanding collection of local and national digital journalism and information businesses, including podcast industry leader Midroll Media, over-the-top video news service Newsy and weather app developer WeatherSphere. Scripps also produces television shows including The List and The Now, runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and serves as the long-time steward of the nation’s largest, most successful and longest-running educational program, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, “Give light and the people will find their own way.”

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