Since 2003 members of the Sales and Marketing Council (SMC), a council of the Home Builders Association of Greater Columbia (HBA), has donated gifts, monetary donations and their time for the families of St. Lawrence Place. This April, members of the council and their co-workers, friends and family participated in a friendly weight loss competition and fundraiser for the charitable organization.

The SMC Biggest Loser competition was comprised of eight teams each consisting of different numbers of people with a total of 86 participants. Teams weighed-in each week for 9 weeks and competed to lose the highest percentage of weight as the contest continued. Some teams and some individuals collected corporate and individual sponsorship monies based on the amount of weight lost during the competition. Those donations were collected at the June 25 SMC Quarterly Meeting and totaled $8,508.75 in charitable donations to St. Lawrence Place. Of that total, $1,477 was donated by Essex Homes, SE, $6,751.75 was raised from sponsorships of other teams and individual participants; the final $280 came from other donations.

St. Lawrence Place, a program of the Trinity Housing Corporation, provides thirty units of transitional housing for homeless families in Columbia. The purpose of the transitional housing program is to provide a “breathing space” for families between emergency shelter and permanent housing. During this period, they can regain stability, obtain employment or additional training, and develop life skills, which begin the long process back to independence.

The Sales & Marketing Council of Columbia consists of home builders, land developers, realtors and marketing professionals. The council strives to educate its members to the practices of sales and marketing of new homes by providing education programs and a forum for home builders and new home sales agents to network. In addition to this latest effort by the council, members have also renovated seven units of St. Lawrence Place, collected and donated school supplies to the children living at the facility and donated money to the group for the general operating budget.

For more information on St. Lawrence Place, please contact Lila Anna Sauls at (803) 256-3999. For more information on the Sales & Marketing Council of Columbia, please contact Heather McDonald at (803) 256-6238.