1984 - 2024 

Home Builders Care History

HBCF was established in the early 1980s as Operation Tom Sawyer and functioned as the charitable arm of what was then the Suburban Maryland Building Industry Association.

​Our founder, Robert L. Mitchell, believed that home builders have a responsibility to serve the needs of growing communities and families and make every home a part of that community. Everyone deserves the dignity of a home.

• The very first official OTS project took place on May 21, 1983 at the Muncaster Youth Home, part of the Boy's and Girl's Home of Montgomery County, a local nonprofit. The OTS project began as an outreach program of the Association's Pubic Relations Committee.
• The OTS Foundation filed its Articles of Incorporation in the State of Maryland on July 2, 1984. OTS was later re-branded in the 1990s as the Home Builders Care Foundation.
• OTS obtained its tax-exempt status on August 19, 1985.
• The Home Builders Care Foundation merger with the Building Industries Foundation became official on September 1, 2014. At that time our service area expanded to cover 85% of the state of Maryland.

​Since our inception, it is estimated that HBCF has made significant in-kind contributions of more than $25,000,000 worth of materials and labor to projects assisting the homeless and others at risk in the communities we serve. The total value of our projects is estimated to be more than double that amount.

It Began with the First Project

Mr. Steve Pettit of the Pettit Companies at the ribbon cutting at the Muncaster Youth Home. The project began as an outreach program of SMBIA's Public Relations Committee.

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Read an article from 1985....

The First Board of Directors of Operation Tom Sawyer Foundation
1984-1985 
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• Neil Moreland, President
• Joel Brodsky
• Larry Hogan, Jr.
• Ray LaPlaca
• John Pettit
• Roy Murphy
• Bruce Winston​

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Our Founder Bob Mitchell, as the 2000 National President of NAHB, Launches a National Movement. 

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