Building Healthy Communities

I’m just back from our service event in Atlanta.  This is one of 25 volunteer activities we had this week, as part of our month-long, 90-event Celebration of Service. We’ve adopted a 20-acre park near downtown Atlanta for the year, and this was the third of four workdays we’ll have there.  The neighborhood has been trying to transform this piece of wild woodlands into an accessible natural area for about 5 years, but was making slow progress.  With 75 people working for four 6 hour projects, you can accomplish a huge amount of work.

I was a little cynical about creating a day of service around 9/11, but given the conversations this morning as we gathered at the park, it is clearly an appropriate way to commemorate the day.  Each of us shared the story of where we were when the planes hit the towers - stories we would never forget.  I recalled that I was in the hospital after having our second child the day before, and I”m always a bit sad that his birthday is linked in my mind to what happened during the first days of his life.

Given what was on everyone’s minds, thinking about it now, I believe it was a gift to be able to come together as a team and to work collectively to create something constructive for our neighbors to share.  In a few hours, we saw the landscape transformed with trails, bridges and a new meadow where kids can run.

The day started with  a slightly somber tone, but as we left, a little wet and muddy from occasional rain with sore hands and backs, our moods had lifted.  I left with a changed point of view about the best way to spend a day associated with grief, and I hope that from now on, when asked about my son’s birthday, I’ll remember what happened the day after his 8th birthday as well as what happened on that day in 2001.

Today kicks off our Celebration of Service: 30 Years of Giving Back, which is a month-long recognition of the amazing work The Home Depot associates do year-round in our communities.  On any given month, we have about 50 volunteer projects across the country.  Our associates, through Team Depot, come out during their personal time to paint houses, plant trees, build community gardens and otherwise make a lasting difference in their neighborhoods with their muscle, sweat and heart.  They are like the postman, they do it in the heat, rain, snow and (occasionally) the dark of night.  They do it because they are good, caring people who know what we can accomplish working alongside our neighbors.

I brought the rain to a tree planting event in Miami earlier this summer.

This is the fifth year we have set aside September to focus on volunteer service and as we prepared for all of the activities (we have a map and calendar to show all of them), I started think about why I volunteer.  This question is particularly pertinent because it seems that I bring a torrential downpour wherever I decide to work, which makes it a little less enjoyable.  It’s not because a celebrity told me it was cool to serve or because my mother told me it was the “right thing to do.”  And although it’s part of my job, it’s not because I have to, because I volunteered before I worked for the Foundation.

I very much enjoy the opportunity to directly help others, but I believe that that is something almost anyone would say.  And there is satisfaction in seeing something made better - whether it’s a freshly painted (with no-VOCs!) room, a brand new playground or a newly planted tree.  But mostly, I think I volunteer to be part of a team - I mean that not only in terms of the people with whom I volunteer, but also with the people who are benefiting, whether they are able to volunteer as well or not.  I volunteer because of the personal connection we are able to make with one another when we step outside of our usual day-to-day routines.

We were in Galveston this summer repairing houses that were damaged by Hurricane Ike.  We painted, landscaped and replaced a door at one house, and the elderly homeowner told me that she never knew people had activities like the one we were supporting that day, and in particular, she didn’t know people would work to help people they didn’t even know.  She was really stunned by what 30 Home Depot volunteers did that day to help her and her family move on from the devastation of the storm.  Standing there talking in her frontyard, we were together, we built a relationship because of what we did for each other:  I helped repair her house, and she allowed me to do that.  I probably won’t see her again, but I feel like we are connected - we are on the same team.

I’m sure you have a reason, perhaps very different from mine, for volunteering.  We want to learn from your experiences, so I ask that you please tell us why you volunteer by leaving a comment.