Brad Paisley Foundation Kick-start Fundraising for Homes for White Sulphur Springs

Mylan, MedExpress and Brad Paisley Foundation Kick-start Fundraising for Homes for White Sulphur Springs with $1,750,000 in Donations

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va., Aug. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Homes for West Virginia, in partnership with SBP, today announced donations totaling $1,750,000 from three organizations with state ties at a groundbreaking ceremony in White Sulphur Springs. Mylan's gift of $1,000,000; a $500,000 donation by MedExpress, part of Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company; and Brad Paisley's initial donation of $250,000 from his #WVFloods GoFundMe account will provide early funding to launch Homes for West Virginia and its first initiative – Homes for White Sulphur Springs. Homes for West Virginia's total fundraising goal is $20 million.

Homes for West Virginia is a newly created partnership with SBP and local stakeholders with the goal of working to help rebuild homes, restore lives and rejuvenate communities devastated by the 2016 West Virginia flooding with local, regional and national businesses, organizations and volunteers.

"SBP is thrilled to accept the generous donations of Mylan, MedExpress and Brad Paisley to jumpstart our fundraising for Homes for White Sulphur Springs," said Zack Rosenburg, SBP CEO and co-Founder. "The people of West Virginia impacted by the terrible flooding deserve to be able to rebuild their homes and lives. More than 1,200 homes across the state were severely damaged or destroyed in the flooding. These funds will help us share our model and the knowledge we learned from Katrina and other disasters to help residents regain a sense of normalcy and have a place to call home again."

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said: "I'm proud to have been born and raised in a small town in West Virginia and know firsthand the work ethic and community spirit of the state. Today I'm privileged to serve a West-Virginia-born company as CEO. Mylan was founded in White Sulphur Springs in 1961, and today we continue to operate in the state with a workforce of more than 3,000 in Morgantown. To see the devastation of our birthplace and surrounding areas is heart-wrenching. We are committed to the long term recovery of the region, not just through our financial support, but by bringing business leaders together to leverage expertise and rejuvenate these communities. We will benefit from SBP's experience in combination with local capacities and the passion of concerned stakeholders to turn this tragedy into triumph and come back stronger than ever before."

"MedExpress was founded in West Virginia, and we are proud of our roots," said MedExpress CEO Frank Alderman, MD, himself a West Virginia native, on behalf of MedExpress and UnitedHealth Group. "West Virginia is currently home to 27 of our centers, our patients and hundreds of our employees and their families. We fully understand that our West Virginia communities will need continued support, not just today, but for many months and years to come. As a community partner, we knew we had to act and act quickly to support those who lost so much. We're honored to partner with SBP, Mylan, Brad Paisley and the countless other volunteers and contributors who are taking immediate action to accelerate the recovery time − so those affected can reclaim normalcy and move to permanent homes as soon as possible."

Award-winning country music star Brad Paisley said, "My heart continues to go out to the many people in West Virginia affected by the floods. I hope that our initial contribution is another step in helping residents rebuild their lives. I saw the devastation on a recent trip to Kanawha County. While we initially established a GoFundMe account for flood victims, I wanted to do more. Through Homes for West Virginia, we can rebuild our communities in a somewhat quick and sustainable manner. It's easy to focus on a disaster in the short term. With today's support, I encourage others to step up and donate for the many West Virginians still in need."

Homes for West Virginia's first initiative is Homes for White Sulphur Springs, which will serve as a model for similar projects to be scaled for additional West Virginia communities impacted by the floods. Community business leaders, members of Congress, state and local officials, many volunteers and the community came together at a groundbreaking ceremony today to discuss the 42-home neighborhood and community park.

To donate to Homes for West Virginia or learn more visit: www.HomesforWV.org.

About Mylan

Mylan is a global pharmaceutical company committed to setting new standards in healthcare. Working together around the world to provide 7 billion people access to high quality medicine, we innovate to satisfy unmet needs; make reliability and service excellence a habit; do what's right, not what's easy; and impact the future through passionate global leadership. We offer a growing portfolio of more than 2,700 generic and branded pharmaceuticals, including antiretroviral therapies on which approximately 50% of people being treated for HIV/AIDS in the developing world depend. We market our products in more than 165 countries and territories. Our global R&D and manufacturing platform includes more than 50 facilities, and we are one of the world's largest producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Every member of our more than 40,000-strong workforce is dedicated to creating better health for a better world, one person at a time. Learn more at mylan.com.

About MedExpress

MedExpress, part of Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company, is a national leader in delivering high-quality, convenient and affordable walk-in care. We provide a broad scope of services including urgent care, employer health services and basic wellness and prevention services. MedExpress' full-service neighborhood medical centers accept most insurance and are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week and always have a fully staffed medical team. MedExpress has administrative offices in Morgantown, W.Va., and Canonsburg, Pa. For more information, visit medexpress.com or like/follow on Facebook and Twitter @MedExpress.

About Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist and entertainer whose talents have earned him numerous awards, including three GRAMMYs, two American Music Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards and 14 Country Music Association Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), among many others. He has been a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001. Paisley has written 20 of his 23 #1 singles with the first being his 1999 hit "He Didn't Have To Be" and his most recent, "Perfect Storm," from his chart-topping 2014 album Moonshine in the Trunk. Paisley kicked off his Crushin' It World Tour the middle of May by playing to over 50,000 fans the first weekend and will continue through October. Paisley has partnered with Boot Barn® and developed an exclusive line of jeans, hats, T-shirts, jewelry, belts and woven shirts called Moonshine Spirit by Brad Paisley.

Connect with Brad at www.BradPaisley.com, www.Facebook.com/BradPaisley, on Twitter @BradPaisley, on Instagram @Brad Paisley, and YouTube at YouTube.com/BradPaisley.

About SBP

SBP's mission is to shrink time between disaster and recovery. Since its founding in 2006 in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, SBP has rebuilt homes for more than 1,120 families with the help of 125,000 volunteers in New Orleans; Joplin, MO; Staten Island, NY; Rockaway, NY; Monmouth and Ocean Counties, NJ; San Marcos, TX and Columbia, SC.

SBP's model is enhanced by AmeriCorps, which provides 140 members annually to manage worksites and clients, and train the organization's volunteers nationally.

Through its Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lab (DRRL), SBP works to share lessons learned, prevent common barriers to recovery and help communities utilize SBP's standardized, repeatable and proven-effective model.

SBP shrinks time between disaster and recovery via five interventions:

1)    Build innovatively, driving efficiency

2)    Share SBP's proven effective model with other organizations to increase efficacy across the disaster rebuilding sector

3)    Train home and business owners in resilience and risk mitigation prior to disaster

4)    Advise local and state government officials so they can deploy federal dollars sooner, and in a way that empowers an efficient recovery

5)    Advocate so that what is measured is what matters – a complete recovery

To learn more, visit www.SBPUSA.org and like/follow on Facebook & Twitter @SBPUSA.

- Read the full story at UnRatedMagazine.com