NEWS
Daniel Mills named Vice Chair for Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore
After serving for 16 months on the board, DVB’s VP takes on a more central role.
Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore has announced that Daniel Mills has been named the new Vice Chair for the Executive Committee. Daniel also serves as Vice Chair of the Wicomico County Board, the JA Inspire Committee and the Experiential Facility Committee.
Daniel Mills speaking with middle schoolers at this year’s JA Inspire Event at the Wicomico Civic Center
“Daniel has always been passionate about our mission. He is drawn to preparing youth for high-demand jobs, including those in the trades. He has been a great asset to our board, with a positive attitude and strong desire to take our organization on to bigger things. ”
At Delmarva Veteran Builders, we are proud to have people like Daniel Mills leading the charge here on a daily basis but also reaching out and getting involved in our community. We look forward to the continued impact he will make with area youth.
"I feel the need...The need for speed!" DVB and Blue Angels team up.
Chris Eccleston, founder of Delmarva Veteran Builders, was selected to fly with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels as part of their Key Influencer Program.
Heroic water rescue captured on film by Delmarva Veteran Builders security cameras.
Help nominate local hero Andrew for recognition on The Ellen Show!
On Tuesday June 18th, first responders were called to the Salisbury River Walk off of East Market Street to assist a man who had plunged his vehicle into the water. A local bystander named Andrew Lunn happened to witness the accident and immediately jumped into action. He dove into the water, while others helped toss an emergency life preserver that was stationed near the scene. Lunn was able to retrieve the man from the sinking car and swim him to safety. It’s reported that the man will make a full recovery.
Later, DVB was able to look back through security camera footage to capture the scene as it unfolded. From the two video angles below, you can clearly see the quick action taken by Lunn within seconds of the incident taking place. He is a true hero!
Within Hours on facebook, Wicomico First Alert has requested citizens nominate Andrew Lunn to be recognized on the Ellen Show for his heroism. He deserves so much credit for his quick action and selfless behavior. We need more people who are cool under pressure like him!
Help us nominate Andrew for the Ellen Show, click here
View ABC 47’s footage of the event and their interview with Andrew.
DELMARVA VETERAN BUILDERS FOUNDER CHRIS ECCLESTON SPEAKS AT PENTAGON
Leaders from around the globe gathered in Washington to discuss veteran employment.
SALISBURY, MD – Chris Eccleston, founder and president of the Delmarva Veteran Builders (DVB), was invited to the Pentagon to speak at the 2019 International Conference on Employer Support for the Reserves on April 30.
ICESR is a biennial conference for allied and partner nations to meet and discuss their reserve employer support programs, and to exchange lessons learned and best practices.
Eccleston, along with Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis; Joe Crandall, a partner with Greencastle Consulting in Malvern, Pennsylvania; and Carrol Eggert, Comcast Corp.'s senior vice president for military and veterans affairs, participated in a panel discussion during the conference. The four panelists represented companies that have received the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. The panel members discussed how military service and experience makes guardsmen and reservists excellent employees.
“I have been a big advocate of transitional employment since day one. I understand what it’s like to come back from deployment. So, as an employer, I want to encourage my fellow veterans to follow their dreams. If it’s in the construction business, great, but if it means they can have a place like DVB to come work for a time being while discovering their true passions in life, even better. Sharing some of our company success stories with colleagues from around the globe looking to utilize this same model, was a proud moment for me.”
Kim Joiner, acting principal deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense for public affairs, said that the Defense Department is hoping to use panels like this to educate the American public about who their military people are, what they do, why they serve and ways companies can help reservists when they deploy. Today, only about one-half of 1% of Americans are in the military, and therefore, there are fewer veterans around than in earlier generations to tell the military story and what it means to serve.
If you would like to know more about your military and ways our government is poised to help veterans transition into civilian life, please visit Know Your Military for more information.
Chris Eccleston of Delmarva Veteran Builders featured in this month's edition of "At Ease" magazine
DVB Founder Chris Eccleston gets candid with writer Brian Shane about the last five years of business.
Note: For the full magazine view go to At Ease magazine
Or Scroll down below the images to read web version here on our site.
Story by Brian Shane | photos by Todd Dudek
Chris Eccleston's pinch-me moment came in 2016 when the Department of Defense had honored his still-growing construction firm with the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award, the government's highest honor for companies that support National Guardsmen and Reservists.
"I was like, 'wow. I can't believe it.' I mean, I was on the stage with the CEOs of Lowe's and Alaska Airlines," he recalled. "For me to be in the same room and give the same speech on the same stage as these high-powered CEOs? We'd been in business three years at this point. It was unreal."
Eccleston, 37, is a navy veteran who founded his own construction company with the explicit goal of hiring fellow service members- and has skyrocketed to remarkable success in just a few short years.
His firm, Delmarva Veteran Builders, handles multi-million-dollar commercial and military contracts in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. In 2017, they did $18.5 million in business; in 2018 that figure rose to $25 million. More than half of the company's 25 employees have past military service or currently serve in the Reserves.
Eccleston's goal of having 50-60 percent veterans on the payroll came from his own experiences of being told he was overqualified for construction jobs because of his military resume.
"I knew the potential that was there," he said. "Construction's the easy part. The attitude, showing up to work every day, the tenacity, the innovation - that's the stuff that's hard to find. So, if you have a bunch of people with a winning mindset, you can harness that, and teach them."
Eccleston joined the Navy out of high school in 1999, and expected to one day extend his enlistment to officer candidacy, followed by a career in a the Navy. But the game plan changed after the terrorist attacks of September 2001.
The first of his three deployments embarked exactly one week after that fateful day. He would go on to spend more than four years aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, where he last served as a machinist mate second class in the nuclear reactor room.
Being deployed, he said, "gives you a much different perspective on things" when you're back in civilian life.
"It hardens you," he said. You have this ability to handle adversity and this kind of resolve that you get. You can embrace and live through the suck, if you will - that's a Navy SEAL term, 'embrace the suck' - while you're in it. You can live in the world of 'this isn't pleasant right now' because you've done it and you've been overseas."
After his service ended in 2006, Eccleston earned a college degree in construction management, a field to which he was drawn because he wanted to be a part of a team that could deliver tangible results. Back in his hometown of Salisbury, Maryland, he found work with the firm Gillis Gilkerson, where he spent seven years climbing the ladder from laborer to project manager.
"Construction became very easy for me," he said. "I'm not trying to brag, but one the process clicked for me, I could handle multiple projects at one time. And so I wanted to take on more, and do that kind of stuff."
in 2013, the nation's economic recession had just ended, and pent-up demand for construction projects began to take shape. Eccleston, at age 32, decided to leave his employment, and start his own company.
"We gained traction really fast, and that kind of compounded on itself," Eccleston said. "It seemed like the community waned to support it. And timing to the market, with the economy kind of taking off, helped as well. It was kind of like the perfect storm."
Delmarva Veteran Builders now boasts a track record to rival any long established construction firm. Their average project size is $2 to $3 million. They've constructed five Royal Farms stores, and built two major hotels, with eyes on a third. The firm continues to grow in 2019 and hire more veterans.
Another major milestone for Delmarva Veteran Builders was landing at number 456 on the list of America's 5,000 best companies for 2018 from Inc. Magazine, which reported its three-year growth at a staggering 1,114 percent.
"You're doing great locally, but when you're up against everybody in the country? For me, it was like, holy cow. You're talking about the top 10 percent of businesses in the country. That's something I'm really, really proud of," Eccleston said.
"I think it's a testament to our workforce, who and what they are."
Eccleston admits he already had drive and energy, he he credits the military with giving him discipline and focus to achieve the goals he set for himself.
"I'm ready for more, really. It's what's next, don't stop. I'm really and truly blessed. It's just fun and exciting. There's a lot of opportunity out there right now, and it's cool to see that activity and that spirit alive here in Salisbury," he said.
Team DVB pulls out the big guns for the Hero's Challenge Fire Truck Pull.
Watch the video to see the team dig in and pull some heavy machinery.
The DVB team showed up in full force to participate in the charity again this year.
Read the full article on Delmarva Now about the event.
Read Full Article, click here.
DVB supports teachers at Pinehurst Space Conversion Project
Watch the video of delivery day with Principal Kevin Smith.
Daniel Mills and DVB team up with Junior Achievement to participate in the very first JA Inspire event.
The local event drew a crowd of over 1200 area students.
Over 1,200 students learned about the vast array of careers available right here on the Eastern Shore!
Delmarva Veteran Builders exhibits at Junior Achievement "Inspire" event at the Wicomico County Civic Center.
DVB sets out to inspire middle-schoolers considering a career in the commercial building industry.
We had so much fun yesterday at the Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore Inspire event. Attempting to convey the steps of the building process, our creative and marketing team put together a Stack challenge using giant color-coded Jenga blocks. Students had to follow directions, work as a team and race to stack the blocks correctly in the shortest amount of time with out toppling the structure. Some kids were determined to get the best time, and the winners from Mardela Middle completed the challenge in 24 seconds, where the average time overall was over a minute, thirty seconds! Way to go! We were honored to exhibit at this wonderful career fair for the 8th-grade students of Wicomico County! Thank you to Sherry Eiseman of United Rentals - Branch #321 for donating the use of the Mini Excavator. We can’t wait to come back next year.
