St. Jude prepares Dream Home

Area residents once again will have a chance to win a home while furthering the fight against childhood cancer.

The $100 tickets for the 2009 St. Jude Dream Home will go on sale March 24. Country music artist Randy Owen will buy the first ticket in a ceremony that day at Unum Group’s downtown offices, said Megan Hayes Emmert, event marketing representative for ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

This Dream Home is the third to be built in Hamilton County, Mrs. Emmert said, while previous homes were built in North Georgia.

Pratt & Associates is building the home, on a lot in the FrontGate subdivision, she said. FrontGate is on Ooltewah-Georgetown Road near the Seven Lakes development.

“St. Jude is such a wonderful organization, and the people who are involved in the Dream Home are great people,” said Win Pratt, vice president of Pratt & Associates. “We’ve been in business 10 years and have been pretty successful, and thought this would be a great opportunity to give back to the community.”

The home has a pre-construction appraisal of $335,000, and is 3,193 square feet large, said Mr. Pratt, who said this is his company’s first year of working with St. Jude. Construction should be completed around the end of April, he said.

A public open house will be held in mid-May, Mrs. Emmert said. People attending the open house can enter to win a $5,000 furniture package from Walker’s Oak & More Furniture, she said.

The house has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a two-car garage, Mr. Pratt said. The master bedroom, with sitting area, three other bedrooms, and three bathrooms are upstairs. The ground floor has a bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, breakfast area and office, plus a mudroom separating the garage and kitchen.

Amenities include solid-surface countertops, hardwood floors, tile floors in bathrooms and a tile shower, Mr. Pratt said.

The drawing for the house and 14 other prizes will be on June 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mrs. Emmert said. The odds are one in 500 of winning a prize, each of which are valued at $1,000 or more, according to ALSAC.

Visit stjudedreamhome.org for more information. Last year’s Chattanooga Dream Home raised more than $700,000 to benefit St. Jude, Mrs. Emmert said. According to ALSAC, the nationwide Dream Home program is the hospital’s single largest fundraiser.