It was a day full of smiles and excitement as Clayton Homes staff celebrated with the Clinton-Sampson Chamber of Commerce as they became the Chamber’s newest member. Pictured, from left, are Chamber executive director Matt Stone, Jason Guerin, Michelle Goodman, Cortney Guerin, Chrystian Guerin, Jimmy Matthews and Cole Westberry.
The Sampson-Clinton Chamber of Commerce expanded resources to support the community in a new way after welcoming Clayton Homes of Clinton into its membership.
Clayton Homes, staff said, joined the Chamber to increase its presence within Sampson and in the hopes of getting more involved within the community.
“Oh, it’s exciting! We want to try and get more involved with stuff for the community,” said Jason Guerin, of Clayton Homes. “Currently, we’re trying to reach out to like Smithfield. One of the things we just recently emailed them about was that we want to possibly look into doing a ham giveaway around Thanksgiving. So we’re trying to partner with them on that. We’re now waiting to hear back from them. That’s just some of what we have in mind that we’re hoping do to a lot more of as part of the Chamber.”
Clayton Homes is an affordable home ownership manufacturer that specializes in offering high quality manufactured and modular homes. Getting the word out about that mission of helping people get into their dream home, and the services they provide to get them there, is another big reason Guerin noted as to why they joined the Chamber.
“I was just telling Mr. (Jim) Matthews, what we really want to be able to bring to the community is quality, affordable housing options for people,” he said. “That is especially true for those who don’t have the funds for housing because buying a house, itself, right now is insane. So, when you look at us as an option versus a site built home, you’re looking at half the cost, and yet the quality of it is, it’s built exactly like a site built home.
“Our homes are just not built on site; it’s built in a factory. It’s never exposed to the weather, so there’s a lot of benefits to it. These are all net zero, E-built homes, with a lot of energy efficiency qualities and features in them and so it’s really some nice stuff. We really want to let people know about what we do here and what we can offer them; we want to get as many people in Sampson County into their dream homes as possible.”
To commemorate them joining the Chamber, Clayton Homes hosted an open house and ribbon cutting event where Chamber executive director Matt Stone presented them with a certificate of membership.
“We’re proud to have Clayton Homes as a member of the Chamber and a member of the community,” Stone noted. “Folks in the workforce, it’s important to bring them out and have them here because they’ve got to have housing. Affordable housing is important; that’s a valuable product these guys offer. So we’re happy to have them and hope they’re able to succeed, and we at the Chamber hope to help them do so.
“Clayton Homes, they are our newest platinum member, so they’ve made a large investment in the Chamber and in this community, and we’re very grateful for that. That’s what we’re looking for — more partners. Membership is great but if we can partner with folks to move the needle in this community, that makes a great deal of difference.”
That investment into the Chamber, and as a byproduct investment in the community, are the relationships fellow Chamber member Jimmy Matthews noted is what it’s all about.
“It’s great to have people come to town and see the value of the Chamber and want to be a part of it. That helps keep us as a viable and an ongoing entity in our community,” he remarked. “We appreciate that people do sense that, and it helps to start building those relationships as new entities come to town, too, so that’s great. What I’ve seen here, they are first class company with a wonderful product that there’s definitely an opportunity for people to have and use in our community. I see that as a plus to, and so to me, hopefully, we will be as helpful to them as they will be to our community.”
Clayton Homes of Clinton is located at 720 Southeast Blvd. in Clinton.
Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.