May 24, 2012
- By pmortensen
- In Latest News, Uncategorized, WWV Blog
- Tagged bill rancic, building, children, construction, education, giuliana, giuliana & bill show, giuliana and bill, haiti, homes, housing, housing construction, luly, mission teams, mission travel, mission trips, missions, rancic, schools, sponsorship, student sponsors, student sponsorships, students, williamson, world wide village, worldwidevillage, WWV
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The power of a well-placed message is amazing, and here’s proof.
On Tuesday, May 15th, the Style Network aired an episode of the Giuliana & Bill Show that featured star Bill Rancic taking a trip to Haiti to build a home with World Wide Village and our team of Haitian construction workers. Since the airing a little over a week ago, we have had more visitors to our website than we usually have in a month, with about 80% of them being new visitors. Even after pulling out the big boost of the first couple of days, we’re still averaging over 3 times as many visits per day than we were before the show.
Having web visitors is great, especially new visitors, but measure of impact is, “Did they take action while they were on the site?” In short, yes! Since the show aired we’ve had 20 people ask about taking a mission trip to Haiti, 16 new requests for internships, and a good number of online donations. In addition, we’ve had 5 people step up to sponsor a child in Haiti.
When Bill went to Haiti to build a home for Madame Josette’s family, he changed the lives of everyone in that family. However, since his show aired, several dozen lives have been potentially changed, and more are being positively affected every day. Plus, every time the episode airs again in the future, even more people will hear about World Wide Village and more lives will be changed.
We would love to take all the credit, but the truth is it was God who led to the connection between Bill Rancic and WWV, and it was God who moved Bill to build the home in Haiti and to share it with his audience. All we can do is thank God for opening the doors and thank Bill Rancic for opening his heart to World Wide Village and the people of Haiti. World Wide Village has been blessed by having big-hearted people like Bill supporting our efforts to help lift the people of Haiti.
To learn more about World Wide Village’s housing efforts in Haiti click here. You can also learn about how World Wide Village is partnering with professionals in the building and real estate industry to build homes in Haiti by visiting www.plusonehomes.com.
May 16, 2012
- By pmortensen
- In Latest News, Uncategorized, WWV Blog
- Tagged bill rancid, building, children, construction, education, giuliana, giuliana & bills show, giuliana and bill, haiti, homes, housing, housing construction, luly, mission teams, mission travel, mission trips, missions, rancic, schools, sponsorship, student sponsors, student sponsorships, students, williamson, world wide village, worldwidevillage, WWV
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It was fun last night watching the hit “Giuliana & Bill Show” on the Style Network, and I couldn’t help cheering when he and his friends met Randy Mortensen, WWV President, at the house in Jacmel, Haiti that Bill had arranged to get built. They all worked alongside a crew of Haitian construction workers that had been trained by WWV. Bill arranged to build the house in order to keep a promise that he’d made to the family of Madame Josette. (See previous blog post).
As part of the show, Bill talked to the camera and told viewers to go to the World Wide Village website to support our work in Haiti. Within moments after the announcement people were on the website. Within 30 minutes after the show was over World Wide Village had received several pledges and several inquiries into taking mission trips to Haiti. We’re confident the interest, and donations will continue, especially since the show will be repeated many times on the Style Network (check listings for show times).
To paraphrase Giuliana Rancic from the show, “We’re really proud of Bill for what he and his friends did in building the home for Madame Josette and her family.” We are proud to be able to call Bill a friend of World Wide Village and look forward to helping him build more homes in Haiti.
If you would like to learn more about Bill, his show, and his connection to World Wide Village, here are a few links for you:
Bill’s Haiti Photo Gallery
WWV Previous Blog Post About Bill
Bill Rancic Blog Post About WWV
Giuliana & Bill Show
Bill Rancic Fitting Hearing Aids in Haiti (video)
May 8, 2012
- By pmortensen
- In Latest News, Uncategorized, WWV Blog
- Tagged bill rancid, building, children, construction, education, giuliana, giuliana & bills show, giuliana and bill, haiti, homes, housing, housing construction, luly, mission teams, mission travel, mission trips, missions, rancic, schools, sponsorship, student sponsors, student sponsorships, students, style network, williamson, world wide village, worldwidevillage, WWV
- 2 Comments
The May 15 episode of the “Guliana & Bill” Show on the Style Network will feature an inspiring story that was two years in the making. It’s the story of Bill Rancic and his friends traveling to Jacmel, Haiti to keep a promise he made after the earthquake to build a home for a displaced Haitian family.
The story started shortly
after the January 2010 earthquake when Rancic, winner of the first season of “The Apprentice” went to Haiti with Sara Lee Executive Jon Harris to deliver several thousand pounds of disaster relief food. He was emotionally overwhelmed by what he saw and knew immediately that he wanted to do more to help those so tragically affected by the earthquake.
It was on that trip that he met Didi Pierre Louis and his family. Didi was in desperate need of medical attention so Rancic took him, and two other children, to Chicago to get the care they needed. Unfortunately Didi did not survive. When Rancic next traveled to Haiti he promised Madame Josette, Didi’s mother, that he would build the family a permanent home. They were living in a “tiny hut with a mud floor, no running water or bathroom or kitchen facilities,” Rancic said.
In May of 2011 Rancic went to Haiti again, this time as part of a group traveling with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey is one of WWV’s partners in Haiti and during the trip Rancic met Randy Mortensen, WWV President, and heard about the recently launched WWV Family Housing Fund and it’s commitment to build 500 homes for displaced families in Haiti. Shortly afterward Rancic arranged to fund and build a home with WWV in Jacmel, Haiti.
In February of this year Rancic and several of his friends traveled to Haiti to work with a Haitian construction team from World Wide Village, and Randy Mortensen, to build the home. His partners on the trip included Jon Harris from Sara Lee, Chicago-based building contractor Bert Connolly of Wescon Builders, (now a sponsor of the Plus One Home Project), and art collector Ari Goldman. It is the building of this home that is featured on the “Guliana & Bill” Show.
The experience of building the home so inspired Rancic that he promised to return to Haiti with World Wide Village to fund and build even more homes for some of the 500,0
00 people still living in tents or temporary structures as a result of the quake. “Bill and his friends left Haiti absolutely on fire with the idea of helping other families,” Mortensen said. “He saw first hand that two years after the earthquake Haiti is still hurting, both physically and spiritually.”
The homes will be part of a broad effort by WWV to build homes for quake victims. In 2011 WWV launched the “Family Housing Fund” with a large donation by an anonymous donor. “We’re hoping that Bill’s story will inspire people to support our efforts to build homes in Haiti. Unfortunately, too many people have already forgotten the tremendous need in Haiti.”
World Wide Village’s Haitian housing efforts were expanded just a couple of weeks ago with the launch of the “Plus One Home Project” that seeks pledges from builders, remodelers, suppliers, brokers and agents to help fund the construction of a home in Haiti for every home they build, remodel or sell in this country.
When Bill went to Haiti to build a home for Madame Josette’s family, he changed the lives of everyone in that family. However, since his show aired, several dozen lives have been potentially changed, and more are being positively affected every day. Plus, every time the episode airs again in the future, even more people will hear about World Wide Village and more lives will be changed.
