NEW SEWICKLEY TWP, Beaver Co. — A group that began in a church tool shed will celebrate 25 years of helping more than 3,000 needy households at an event at the Courtyard Marriott in Cranberry Woods.

Hosanna Industries will hold the Celebration of Gratitude at 6 p.m. March 20.

Hosanna Industries was founded on Palm Sunday, 1990, with a donated used pickup truck and three mission workers, said founder and executive director Donn Ed. The group provides free construction services to needy families, including home repairs, replacements, additions and even the construction of new homes.

“We helped 13 households that first year,” Ed recalled.

In the 25 years since, Hosanna Industries workers have built almost 300 new homes in the region. Hosanna’s 10 full-time mission workers now use four trucks to get to their construction sites.

The annual budget has exploded from about $30,000 in 1990 to $1.3 million this year, and all on donations.

“It’s all been made possible through the generosity of other people,” said Amanda Becker, Hosanna spokesman and construction crew worker.

The Trade Skill Learning Center at the Hosanna Industries campus just over the Cranberry Township border in New Sewickley Township is used to teach underprivileged youth a trade. Seminars on basic home repair and installation projects also are held at the center.

Becker said the celebration event is open to everyone, but she mainly expects former clients, donors and many of the 159 mission workers who have worked at Hosanna over the years to attend.

“A decent number of them are coming and bringing their families,” Becker said of the mission workers. “Some of them met their spouses at Hosanna. It’ll be like having the whole gang back together again.”

Becker also expects some of the 150,000 volunteers who have helped over the past 25 years to attend.

The Hosanna campus is set up with dorms, common areas and kitchens to accommodate mission groups who choose Hosanna for their volunteer work. Becker said so far, reservations for the celebration have come from as far away as Michigan and Washington, D.C.

Those who attend can expect hors d’oeuvres and music at 6 p.m., and dinner and speakers at 7.

Ed is looking forward to serving as the keynote speaker at the Celebration of Gratitude.

“We are grateful for all that God’s hands have provided and accomplished through the last 25 years at Hosanna Industries,” Ed said. “Seeing this dream become reality over the past quarter of a century in helping so many needy people, through so many other generous and hard-working individuals, is nothing more than miraculous to us.”

To make reservations for the celebration or to donate to Hosanna Industries, log onto www.hosannaindustries.org.