April 22, 2011

Barbara C. Higgens, Plumbing Manufacturers International’s (PMI’s) executive director, will be recognized with a Crystal Vision “Robert T. Atkins Life Time Achievement Award,” to be presented during the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show on April 26, 2011. Higgens will be the third person ever to receive this award, which honors individual dedication to the mission of “working with children, families and their worldwide communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.”

For more than 10 years, Higgens has championed The Storehouse of World Vision, which addresses the needs of Americans suffering from disaster, personal crisis or economic hardship by providing families with supplies, including building products and materials. Companies donate excess inventory or produced-to-give products to The Storehouse’s warehouses. The Storehouse, in turn, partners with other nonprofit organizations to install these products and materials in homes, shelters, rehabilitation facilities, schools, daycares, churches, and other community centers.

Member companies of PMI’s voluntary, not-for-profit, international, industry association represent 95 percent of North America’s plumbing manufacturers and produce a substantial quantity of the world’s plumbing products. World Vision estimates that more than $80 million worth of plumbing products have been donated during the past five years.

“It’s been my pleasure to serve as a volunteer and ambassador for The Storehouse of World Vision. The program is the ultimate win/win: The Storehouse provides manufacturers with an efficient channel for repurposing their excess inventory in the most wonderful way,” said Higgens. “PMI members’ and other manufacturers’ donations through this program truly improve people’s lives. Having clean, safe drinking water; a decent kitchen to prepare food and gather together; working, water-efficient lavatories—these are things most of us take for granted. It’s been a joy to help connect those who have products to donate with those who need them most.”