Garland County Habitat for Humanity broke ground on another build site on Thursday with the help of a Wells Fargo Foundation grant.
Construction on the home is expected to start this winter.
Robert Zunick, Wells Fargo managing director of investments, and three of his employees, attended, said Courtney Post, Habitat's public relations coordinator. Three Habitat board members were also in attendance.
The $15,000 grant will be used to help build a four-bedroom house that will likely cost around $80,000, she said, noting they unsuccessfully applied for the grant last year after Zunick informed them of it, but then tried again this year.
The groundbreaking "went great," Zunick said. "The weather was beautiful, looking forward to the house being built."
"We were very excited" about getting the grant, he said, noting, "It makes a big difference here in Hot Springs" and he is "tickled to participate in a small way to get the house built."
It is unknown how much Zunick and the employees at Wells Fargo will be able to participate in the actual building of the house, he said.
One of the requirements for getting the grant is they have "to commit to over half of our employees to volunteer" on the project. He said, "we got almost 100% committed to participate."
He said he hopes the workers at Wells Fargo are able to help, but COVID-19 could prevent them from doing so.
"I really don't know if we can," he said, noting Wells Fargo has a "very rigid" protection protocol "to try to protect our employees."
Zunick said if a "vaccine or treatment" comes out before the build starts, then they will likely be able to participate, but if there is none, then they will probably not be allowed to work on the build site.
Despite this, Zunick said that "everyone in the branch office and also in Village are very excited about it."
"Like a lot of our team members, I enjoy helping build and doing something that so clearly aligns with what Wells Fargo is all about. Housing is an important part of people becoming economically self-sufficient," Zunick said in a news release on Thursday.
"I love Habitat in particular because I'm working alongside and helping families, and when we do that, we strengthen neighborhoods, and when neighborhoods are strong, the larger community is, too. That's good for everyone," he said.
Wells Fargo Builds provides philanthropic financial assistance from the Wells Fargo Foundation to support the construction, renovation, painting or repairing of homes with low-to-moderate income households, according to the news release.
In 2019, Wells Fargo employees volunteered more than 1.9 million hours of service to strengthen their communities, including building, repairing, and improving 674 homes across the U.S. with several organizations through Wells Fargo Builds, it said.
"Garland County Habitat for Humanity is looking forward to working with Wells Fargo to strengthen our neighborhoods through philanthropy and volunteerism," Cindy Wagstaff, Habitat's executive director, said in the release. "Safe and stable housing enables people to build upon the rest of their life and, together, we can shift the narrative to help others understand that housing affordability is both an economic and humanitarian crisis that's taking a toll on millions of people."