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Twenty-seven years ago, the Alvarez family made a commitment to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Baton Rouge community. They have shown up every single year since. This 2026, they did it again, and this year’s Dream Home might be their finest yet.

WBRZ Sunday Journal host John Péster stopped by for the full tour, and the segment above is worth every minute. We’re proud to share it here as part of a milestone that means a great deal to our family and to this community.

This year marks our 27th consecutive year building the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway in Baton Rouge— and after 27 years, we are still just as honored to do it as we were on day one.

27 Years. One Family. One Mission.

The Alvarez family’s relationship with St. Jude didn’t start with a business decision. It started with a belief that a family in the home-building business in Baton Rouge had both the means and the obligation to do something meaningful with that position. Anna’s parents started this tradition, and the family has carried it forward every single year since. When Anna talks about the program today, you can hear both of them in it.

“If we have the ability to do this, then it’s our responsibility to do this.”
— Anna Alvarez Tanner, Alvarez Construction

Twenty-seven builds means 27 years of donated time, donated materials, and donated expertise. It means coordinating with designers, suppliers, subcontractors, and volunteers, year after year, on top of running a full home-building operation. It’s not a small lift. But for the Alvarez family, it has never felt optional. The program has become part of who they are as a company and as a family in this community. 

Over those 27 years, Anna has met many of the families St. Jude serves. Some of her closest friends today are parents of St. Jude kids who are now healthy and living full lives. “You can’t take that away,” she says. That kind of connection is what keeps the commitment personal, not just professional.

_{Photography by Kasey Gary. The 2026 St. Jude Dream Home, Oak Colony — Baton Rouge, LA.}

Inside the 2026 Dream Home

Here’s something that tells you everything about how this home comes together. A few years into the partnership, Anna Alvarez Tanner told interior designer Angela at Acadian House to stop showing her plans in advance. “You don’t have to do this,” Anna said. “Surprise me.” Angela has delivered every year since. This one is something special.

Walk in and the lighting grabs you immediately — dramatic, clustered fixtures that feel more like sculpture than function. The kitchen, which Anna calls her favorite room, carries that same energy: rich green tones, wooden beams, and Bosch appliances that make it as beautiful as it is practical.

The master suite deserves its own mention. A private coffee station, a pedestal soaking tub, a double rain-head shower framed by a sweeping arch, and a "she and she" closet with 12-foot ceilings that feels more like a private boutique than a wardrobe. The rest of the home follows suit, a bold blue second bedroom, vibrant color throughout, confident, joyful, and genuinely unlike anything we've built before.

But as stunning as this home is, the build itself is only part of the story.

What the St. Jude Dream Home Program Actually Does

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital operates on a simple but staggering promise: no family ever pays for treatment. Not for the care itself, not for travel to Memphis, not for housing while their child is admitted, not for food, and not for follow-up visits after they come home. Every cost is covered, so that parents who are already going through the unimaginable never have to think about the bill on top of it.

The Dream Home Giveaway is one of the primary ways St. Jude funds that promise. Each year, builders in cities across the country donate the time and materials to construct a fully custom home. The community buys $100 tickets for a chance to win it, and every dollar raised goes directly toward St. Jude’s research and patient care. The model is simple. The impact is not.

Baton Rouge has been part of this program for 30 years. The Alvarez family has been at the center of it for 27 of them. And it matters here more than most places, because a significant portion of St. Jude’s patients come from Louisiana. The children in those beds aren’t far from home. They’re from this state, and in many cases, from this city.

“I see hope. I see that we’re making a difference.”
— Anna Alvarez Tanner, Alvarez Construction

Rooted in Baton Rouge. Building for Louisiana.

Alvarez Construction has been building homes in the Baton Rouge area for over three decades. The families buying those homes, raising kids in those neighborhoods, and putting down roots in this community are the same families the Dream Home program exists to protect. That proximity is not lost on anyone at Alvarez. When a child from Baton Rouge is diagnosed with cancer and sent to St. Jude, the Alvarez family knows the odds are real that they’ve crossed paths with that family somewhere along the way.

That’s what makes 27 years of participation mean something beyond the headline number. It’s not charity at arm’s length. It’s a company investing in the community it genuinely calls home, year after year, in one of the most concrete ways it knows how.

A $100 ticket is a chance to win a stunning home. It’s also a vote of confidence in the idea that the people of Baton Rouge look out for each other. As Anna says:

“They not only get a beautiful home, but they’re giving somebody’s child a fighting chance of surviving and being able to live a normal life. 
As a parent, who wouldn’t want that?”
— Anna Alvarez Tanner, Alvarez Construction



Alvarez Construction is a Louisiana-based home builder proudly serving Baton Rouge and surrounding communities for over three decades. Learn more about our community outreach efforts or explore our St. Jude Dream Home history on our website.