Indianapolis.
The Indiana Coalition on Housing and
Homeless Issues (ICHHI) is pleased to announce that Forrest and
Charlotte Lucas, the founders and owners of Lucas Oil Products, and
their son Morgan have agreed to be the 2008 Honorary Statewide
Chairpersons of Homeward Bound - Indiana's 5K Walk series to provide
housing and fight homelessness.
Homeward Bound, a
project of ICHHI, is an annual series of walks in communities throughout
the state during the month of April. Since its inception in 2003,
Homeward Bound has raised nearly $2,000,000 for over 90 affordable
housing and homeless service providers around the state, making it
Indiana’s largest grassroots fundraiser with the ultimate goal of ending
homelessness. In 2007 alone, Homeward Bound raised nearly $540,000.
Overcoming poverty
is something that the Lucas family knows a great deal about. Less than
20 years ago, before the success of Lucas Oil Products, there were times
when Forrest and Charlotte skipped meals to save money. "I remember
when our son, Morgan, would get lunch and we would wait until dinner
time to eat," Charlotte says. "We had just moved to California and were
living in an efficiency motel at first. After the first month Forrest
went home for our furniture and I went looking for an apartment or a
house – whichever one we could afford."
Charlotte was born
in Huntingburg, Indiana but spent her formative years in Birdseye,
Indiana. Her father, Thomas, worked road construction for Olinger
Construction Company of Huntingburg and her mother, Ruth, worked
re-upholstering furniture and car seats and made artificial flower
arrangements, starting after an accident put their 13 year old son
(Charlotte’s brother) in the hospital for close to nine months. Her
parents taught Charlotte the difference between right and wrong and to
go out and work for what she wanted to achieve.
Forrest’s family
moved around between Jackson, Brown and Bartholomew counties when he was
small, living without electricity until he was eight or nine years old.
He has three wonderful sisters – Carol Diane, Connie Joann, and Brenda
Kay. His father, Raymond, was a hard working concrete mason, and his
mother, Marie, was a nurse at the Columbus, Indiana hospital. Raymond
and Marie, especially Marie, were the people responsible for starting
Forrest off on the right foot in life as a young man with his eyes on
the future. He was an entrepreneur at a very early age just as he is at
this time!
A full copy of this report can be found
here.
