Giveaway overcomes obstacles

The KTBS 3/St. Jude Dream Home has come a long way in 32 years.

The first home given away? A manufactured home.

This year’s home, to be given away on Sept. 14? It has approximately 3,000 heated square feet, four bedrooms, three baths and a three-car garage.

“It’s a beautiful home,” said Jenny Rodgers with Rodgers Home and Construction. “Everything is on-trend, without being overly trendy.”

But, unfortunately, not on time. Because of supply issues that have affected homebuilding across the country, the St. Jude home is not expected to be finished until a few weeks after the drawing.

“It’s a big heartbreak for us,” Rodgers said. “We want everybody to see it. We want everybody to walk through it. … We’ve gone through Covid — we completed a house in the middle of a lockdown. We lost (builder Philip Rodgers’) dad last year, right around the giveaway, and completed the home while (Philip) was going through all of that. So, this year, for us not to complete it in time for the giveaway — it stings.”

Tickets for the giveaway — 15,000 were available at $100 each — sold out a few weeks ago. It’s the first time so many tickets were made available for purchase. The money raised will go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. The hospital’s mission “is to advance cures and means of prevention for catastrophic pediatric diseases through research and treatment.”

“(Dr. Donald Mack’s) dream was always to move (the number of tickets) up to 15,000,” said Jan Elkins, KTBS’ community projects director. “We did that this year, and he knew that before he passed away. We were able to sell out, so that’s a good thing. We sold out early, and I think part of that was because people were buying in his honor and memory.”

Dr. Mack, a Shreveport pediatrician, was the driving force behind the St. Jude Dream Home project from the beginning until his death last March. In 1991, Shreveport-Bossier was the country’s first location for the Dream Home.

“The Ark-La-Tex is so generous,” Elkins said. “I also think that 32 years into this project, people see two things. They see children with cancer. And they see a hospital that really does put the money where families need it. The families don’t pay for their treatment. The families don’t pay for their food, transportation or housing. That’s just an unheard-of concept, but it works because of generous donors.”

Once the home at 741 Duckwater Landing in Bossier is completed, its new owner will enjoy an open floor plan and a finished bonus room upstairs, a large master bathroom and an outdoor kitchen — complete with a grill and a Big Green Egg. As for the home’s inside colors, the goal was to play it right fairly close to the vest.

“We went with a white majority, but we definitely incorporated some fun gold and silvers, and grays in some of the bathrooms,” said Angie Mazzone, builders assistant with Rodgers Homes and Construction. Mazzone took the lead on the interior design of the house and collaborated with Amanda Boyd of Amanda Boyd Interiors.

“Those are still very popular colors that are being used right now,” Mazzone said. “They are attractive. They are versatile. They blend well with several different styles and colors that people might want to have in their home. I think it helps create a nice, neutral pallet.”

Neutral colors are essential when building a home for someone whose taste you don’t know.

“Whoever is the winner of this home, they will be able to incorporate whatever is their style into their daily home life,” Mazzone said. “We did do some really fun accents with lighting that was a little more of a contemporary style that you might not see in some of the other homes, to bring some fun accents to the home. But we kept it pretty much transitional, with neutral palettes throughout, but still bringing in some fun, contemporary pieces.”

The vast majority of everything involved in building the home – from lumber to cabinets to appliances – is donated. For Mazzone, one of the perks of designing the inside of the house was using items from top-of-the-line manufacturers.

“It was so fun being able to work with those folks (sponsors) and pick out some of their latest and greatest products and incorporate that into the home,” Mazzone said. “For example, Brizo is one of our donators, and they have some really fun, mid-century, modern-style fixtures in the bath and kitchen. We wanted to use that as a baseline for the style.”

George Rodgers, who died last year, founded Rodgers Homes and Construction and built the first 20 St. Jude Dream Homes. His son, Philip, took over the business 12 years ago and has walked in his father’s footsteps, building the last 12 dream homes.

“We want to continue (George’s) legacy, Jenny Rodgers, Philip’s wife, said. “We meet other builders. … They know George. They know what he did. They know Philip is the second-generation homebuilder for Dream Home. It just means a lot.”

But keeping alive George Rodgers’ legacy is not always easy.

“There’s this pressure we put upon ourselves to make sure everything is amazing,” Jenny Rodgers said.

And that takes help. A lot of help. But the Dream Home is being built even in this environment — talk of a possible recession, a shortage of workers and difficulty getting materials.

“What’s awesome about this community – and the contractors and subcontractors in this area – is that they call us,” Jenny Rodgers said. “’Hey, it’s St. Jude time. What do you need?’ We are not really seeing a decline in donations, which is awesome. Our laborers are still showing up. They’re still donating the cabinets. Once again, they were donated completely free. That’s a good $20,000 that (the cabinetmaker) gives us every single year and has for many years. … People are still very generous.”

Even though tickets are sold out, you may learn more about the KTBS 3/St. Jude Dream Home by going to ktbs.com and click the “Community” tab at the top of the page.