Project Mercy

Since 2002, Online Builders has participated in Project Mercy’s Baja Challenge. Each year, development and construction companies in Southern California team up with Project Mercy, a non-profit organization, in a one-day marathon effort to improve the basic living standards and quality of life for some of the poorest families in eastern Tijuana, Mexico. A huge number of families in this area live in impoverished conditions, often in shacks with dirt floors, flimsy walls and tarp roofs.

During the Baja Challenge, employees of Online Builders join hundreds of other volunteers to work from early morning into the evening, building sturdy small homes for qualified families. Each family owns their small lot and must prepare the lot ahead of time by clearing the land and pouring a concrete slab, using donated concrete. Each team of volunteers is responsible for raising the $3,500 cost of materials per house and assembling the home. Many teams also donate furnishings such as carpet, mattresses and window coverings.

In 2007, 52 homes were built in a single day.