Pardee Homes reports more than $45,000 was raised by employees for research into the cause and cure of multiple sclerosis, as Team Pardee Homes completed the recent Southern California MS Challenge Walk. Eight Pardee employees and two friends joined the team, walking 50 miles over three days along the San Diego coastline from Carlsbad to downtown San Diego.

“Team Pardee Homes rallied together and surpassed last year’s fundraising total, to once again support this worthwhile cause,” said Sandra Kitashima, communications coordinator and team captain for Pardee Homes. Team Pardee Homes was ranked fifth in overall team fundraising and as one of the top five teams was honored at a special dinner during the challenge. “Our small, but highly motivated team included five of the top individual fundraisers to boot,” added Kitashima. “Fundraising continues throughout the end of July and we are still pursuing our goal of $50,000.”

This is the third year of participation for Team Pardee Homes, which has also met the requirements to gain additional funding from The Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation. Through its Making WAVES grant program, The Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation adds to the funds raised through employee-led volunteerism.

The Pardee Homes team was among some 350 walkers and approximately 69 team supporters who participated in the challenge to help bring the National Multiple Sclerosis Society closer to a cure. The MS Society’s research efforts have resulted in improved diagnosis, important new treatments and enhanced rehabilitation for all forms of MS.

“Pardee Homes’ employees are known for working together to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Mike McGee, Pardee Homes’ president and CEO. “It is one of many such efforts our workforce makes on behalf of those who struggle with serious illness, and everyone at Pardee Homes joins me in commending our team—they did a great job.”

Originally established in Los Angeles in 1921, today’s Pardee Homes is a multi-regional home building company with offices in San Diego, Corona, Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Valencia and Las Vegas, Nevada. Pardee Homes received the 2006 Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Award, the homebuilding industry’s largest and most prestigious philanthropic award, and was named America’s Best Builder 2003 by BUILDER magazine and Best Builder in 2003 and 2004 in the San Diego Union Tribune Reader’s Poll. The company is recognized for commitment to energy-efficient building practices, superior master-planning concepts, quality construction and customer satisfaction and dedication to the educational and civic goals of the communities in which it builds.