MEDIA ADVISORY

Oct. 20: Freddie Mac to Dedicate Marvin Gaye Amphitheater and Habitat Homes following Massive, Weeklong Volunteer Effort

WHAT:	Marvin Gaye Amphitheater and Habitat home dedication will follow a weeklong volunteer effort by 1,000 Freddie Mac employees. From October 16-20, a quarter of Freddie Mac's local workforce, along with DC Habitat for Humanity and Washington Parks & People, are rolling up their sleeves during work hours to help revitalize and transform a Ward 7 neighborhood during the company's Making a Community (MAC) Week. Throughout the week, volunteers are framing four new homes and constructing more than a dozen tool sheds for existing Habitat homeowners. Volunteers are also helping bring music back to the community by constructing an amphitheater – as well as an obstacle course – in the adjacent, historic Marvin Gaye Park.
WHY:	MAC Week is part of a larger, continuing effort to help restore one of the DC area's most neglected and underserved communities into a livable, healthy community that celebrates the area's rich heritage while providing new opportunities for growth, learning and artistic expression. The volunteer contributions of Freddie Mac employees coupled with Freddie Mac's $325,000 contribution as well as a Freddie Mac Foundation $40,000 grant will help advance DC Habitat for Humanity's extensive redevelopment work that began in the area over five years ago as well as Washington Parks & People's efforts to strengthen the community by integrating this park back into it.
WHEN:	Oct. 20, 12:30-1:30 pm
WHO:	Closing Ceremony with Musical Tribute to Marvin Gaye Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) Vincent C. Gray, Councilmember, Ward 7 Eugene McQuade, President, Freddie Mac Ralph Boyd, Executive Vice President, Community Relations, Freddie Mac Carol Casperson, Executive Director, DC Habitat for Humanity Steve Coleman, Executive Director, Washington Parks & People Uhura Williams, Habitat family H.D. Woodson Marching Band Freddie Mac employee volunteers Community members
WHERE:	The Marvin Gaye Amphitheater and Heritage Green, at the center of Marvin Gaye Park, one block east of Division Avenue and Foote Street, NE (behind H.D. Woodson High School).

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders in support of homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases mortgages from lenders and packages them into securities that are sold to investors. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened the doors for one in six homebuyers and four million renters across America.

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