In response to favorable experiences cited by employees in working on previous Habitat for Humanity homebuilding projects in Midland, Fort Worth and Houston, the Burlington Resources (BR) Foundation (subsequently merged with ConocoPhillips) in early 2002 made a $1.2 million commitment to build five homes annually in key BR cities throughout North America - Houston, Midland, Fort Worth, Calgary. BR was the first Houston-based company to enter such a long-term multi-city arrangement.
The commitment was made in support of Habitat's "More than Houses - Rebuilding our Communities" campaign, which proposed to build 120,000 homes in five years. This was a highly ambitious goal, considering that Habitat built the same number of homes during its first 25 years of existence.
Response throughout the company's various divisions has been highly positive. The Midland office was the first division involved in the building of a Habitat home in 1997. Since that time, Mid-Continent employees have participated in building many additional Habitat homes. The Fort Worth office began its association with Habitat in 2001, and employees there have built a house a year since. Calgary employees joined the Habitat bandwagon in 2002. And Houston employees finished their fourth Habitat house in three years in April 2003.
During the build-up for the Super Bowl, held in Houston in January 2004, Houston employees participated in Habitat for Humanity's SuperBUILD XXXVIII project, a historic, National Football League-sanctioned event in which 38 homes were built for needy Houston families during the days leading up to the game. Dozens of area businesses and faith-based organizations teamed up to sponsor homes.