And welcome back to Houston newsmakers where I’m joined by former city council
member, Dwight Vogons, and Doug laying the president of Delco Roofing,
talk about the very unique partnership. Good to see you guys. Good thanks
for. Thanks for having us having time, seen you in a while but you’re staying busy,
you have this program now he working with seniors. You did that
as a council member
now. You’re doing it in your other life. How did that evolve? Well, we’ve
created this nonprofit, this chair by
Dorothy Booker
and it’s a board that consists of senior citizens throughout
the southeast part of Houston.
Ian, and the purpose of the board was to identify
seniors in need khambrel of minor home, repairs
within that area. And so the board members will go
out and identify different seniors that we,
our goal was to make it a fixed a minor repair before became
major. And so, we repaired over six hundred and seven homes.
And then the other day, I received a call from the Cox
Media Group telling me about this company called
Delco, Roofing, that was interested in
there.
Blessed. They were blessed to be able to
give back but they were interested in identifying 12 senior
citizens
in need of a new roof
and the partner with us. And so we kind of
made that happen. So Doug, so talk about this. Your
company was looking for a way to reach out to help community members. So,
I’m sorry. How did why did you come up with this?
That’s right. We,
you know, we’ve been blessed and
on our side we
got created to figure out a way to give back Houston’s, been good to us.
We want to get back, maybe set a new trend, you know,
there’s a lot of divide out there. Maybe
we can pave a
path to go, the right direction.
So teaming up with the Cox media and bring it to White on board,
it’s been a great partnership and
it’s looking good. So what’s the plan going forward? It you
plan to do a roof for,
how many of those you plan to do 12, roofs, and 12 months. So
we encourage everybody to go to websites
and
create a bio, 100 words or less a why you think a
family member
Neighbor, Brandon need would need a new roof
to White. Here is assist with his organization on selecting the winner and
we go out and replace the roof.
Tell me about the, the first one who’s you? Give you picked somebody and you went out
and you did something and he’s a much better sick now. They well yeah,
he’s a military veteran.
He is cared for senior citizen who’s a
star of former star in New York and he’s he’s cared
for her
and they had a big opening in the ceiling. And so we sent
a crew. I mean there’s a crew out there.
They’re repairing it in the seniors assistance, from will cover that
while Doug is covering the roof. So we saw, I’ve got
some video of some of the pictures you sent to talking about that. And so you go
out and I saw you were out there as well, kind of looking at things. It
doesn’t
a roof is not an inexpensive kind of proposition. So no,
it’s
a, you know,
again we’ve been blessed. We have the puzzle pieces to do it and
it just it seemed real natural for us to give back.
I
saw you people. You happy out in front of the house there. How long does it
take to
Lead to do this. That roof was done in
six hours. Ish. You know, we had, we had a big team out there.
We’ve got a lot of people to jumped on board,
be a part of this.
So
it went pretty quick. You know, we’re putting on brand new shingles
brand-new underlayment brand, new ventilation entire system. Brand
new
free to the homeowner. So what kind of
applications are you expecting from this? It means, I would think that if
there’s word gets out about a roof,
we you get a lot more
we have
Seen
we’ve seen an abundance come in
again we need more.
We encourage everybody to go to the website and apply but
you just read some of those stories.
I’m glad I’m not the one so
you know,
selecting it’s hard,
there’s so many neighbors in need out there. It’s
it’s just a true blessing. Talk about the do -
you picked a mean he would was unique about him. And where was it? Stood
out,
man, it is Doug, mentioned, camera is tough. It really is
tough to select.
This guy was caring for our senior, his
cousin
who is up in age
and he’s a military vet and that was very
important important to me.
And and then Delco roof and team went out and did
an assessment of the roof and determined that he was a good fit.
So the story plus
the situation with the roof made it easier to select him but
it’s hard. It’s hard to select. So is it is it
in terms of the information to go in a website at the Cox
media?
Is it the ALCO? What’s the you know? The seniors assistant
fund by
God?
And then
there’s three radio stations, 97, one the eagle and 93 Q.
Yes, there’s landing pages just log on and
you’ll find.
So any page, we’re make sure we put that that’s going to be on our
newsmakers page on click2houston.com, as well. So, anybody’s, it’s okay. What
was that? What was that, again? Sure. Yeah, the cops come and listen to
Erica Rico, 93 Q. They will hear all about
the promo, man, doing her show, and that’s a lot of.
I mean, you’re getting a lot of,
a lot of feedback, a lot of people interested and that
need help and Erica’s doing a
Good job pushing it right and and that means a lot, it really does.
Well this is a good thing. We seen so many stories about people who still
have
blue tarp on the roof. Yeah absolutely. That’s a that’s a
travesty that we still have that in our community but the fact that you guys are stepping
up and doing it,
it’s a good thing.
You’re
12 roofs and 12 months. What’s next? What are you going to build
next?
Yeah
well we’ll put you on the swing. This is successful. You know, we may
continue
will see
greater something new your. I’ve never heard of it before. So I’m sure it’s kind of unique
for you must be
Be without the new pride of being able to walk away and seeing
what you’ve done in terms of changing, somebody’s life must feel great.
It feels great and
it does
with thank you so much when you put all the information
on our website so people can have
everything they need to apply.
Hopefully, you’ll be one of the fortunate ones to be able to get a roof.
I can’t let you go
before. I ask you about the news that congresswoman Jackson Lee is
going to run for mayor. Yeah. What are your thoughts about how that shakes up the mayor’s
race since you were a candidate once?
Yeah
it’s going to be interesting. I think
You know, congresswoman Lee has so much
history in the district, the city, the state,
the country
of helping
people, I think
it’s going to be very difficult for anyone to beat her. I think she wins
the race. I think she’s the front-runner.
As you mentioned, have an opportunity to run for mayor. I understand the pockets of
the city.
I think. Congresswoman Lee
has proven that she’s a community leader. I have nothing to get. I think Senator
with my is a wonderful man I think I served with Amanda at words,
Chris Hollins, he’s up.
Up-and-comer but I think
Italy
Kaplan is a successful attorney.
But I think
when you have someone with her background her experience
and a lot of people she’s helped over the years
of the reality
is it’s going to be hard for anybody to be there. All right. Well thank you for your input
if it comes to truth and will bring your own and make you one of our prognosticators
time I like, hey man, hey I’m very inexpensive, I’m cheap
I love that cheapest good Dwight Balkans duckling, thank you
for what you’re doing. Good luck in your future endeavors. Thanks for On us.