Porto Sponsors Habitat for Humanity House

Raleigh, NC, June 20, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Porto, a high-end home furnishings store with locations in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, is co-sponsoring the construction of a Habitat for Humanity house in Wake County with U.S. presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards’ family and Bass, Nixon & Kennedy, an engineering firm in Raleigh.

In November of 2006, Porto’s co-owners Emily Barret and Michael Perry launched their first annual gala and art auction fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Wake County. The in-store event raised over $13,000 that will be used to purchase materials for the house, according to Debbie Fox-Davis, major gifts officer.

The house will be built in Raleigh’s Dowling Ridge subdivision off Poole Road.

“If all goes well, we should start building the home in early to mid July,” Fox-Davis said. “If we start in July, we should have the house finished by Christmas. Thanksgiving if we are lucky.”

According to Barret and Perry, Porto was founded “on the premise that we are a part of a global community, one where our friends and neighbors extend beyond the people next door.” As a business, they’ve made it a regular practice to give back to the community in a variety of ways, they said, from hosting special exhibits of emerging artists’ work, to contributing their design talents and inventory to designer showhouses for local charities, to launching the own annual fundraiser for Habitat/Wake County.

Porto is located in Raleigh's North Hills Shopping Center and Chapel Hill's Eastgate Shopping Center. For more information, visit http://www.portohome.com.

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