Our hearts go out to those who have experienced hardship and tragedy in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. No one can completely prepare for the events of the past weeks, but The Home Depot Foundation is proud to do our part to assist in the recovery effort because we take this situation very personally. The storm not only impacted our stores, it ravaged a community where more than 30,000 of our associates and thousands of our customers call home.
In response, we will do anything we can to help recover and rebuild the lives of those who were recently affected. In the days following the storm, we announced a commitment of $1 million to the immediate relief and recovery efforts in the Northeast. So far, we have made grants of $740,000:
- $250,000 to the American Red Cross to fund immediate distribution of disaster supplies and activities. As part of this effort, The Home Depot has provided them the Red Cross with 5,000 rakes, 5,000 shovels and 15,000 pairs of leather work gloves.*
- $100,000 to Team Rubicon to deploy special teams of military veterans with unique crisis skills to local communities in the Northeast.
- $150,000 to Operation Homefront to provide food, clothing and temporary shelter to service members and their dependents in in the affected areas.
- $240,000 to the States of New York and New Jersey for ten truckloads(five to New York and five to New Jersey) of clean-up supplies including trash bags, mops, batteries, shovels, and buckets among others.
In the coming days, you will also see Team Depot, our associate-led volunteer corps, on the ground working to help the residents of the surrounding areas that need an extra hand, particularly those who are elderly or disabled.
As we learned through our work in the Gulf after similar destruction from Katrina, we know that the recovery and the rebuilding will take years. As we were after Katrina, our Foundation is committed to this area for the long haul, and we will help every step of the way.
If you would like to help, we encourage you to join us as contributors to the American Red Cross. Bust most importantly, we encourage you to join us in continuing to send thoughts to all of the residents who are still struggling in the aftermath of this terrible storm.
For more information on the Foundation’s efforts, click here.
I at present am ringing bells for the Salvation Army. One of the questioons asked is How much are we helping them ? Is there a need for man power from the Quad City area ? I would gladly stop what I am doing to go assist in clean up, manning shelters or rebuilding. How do I find out about this ? Sandy Ackley
I am interested in helping either her or there. I have helped Habitat build houses some in the Quad Ciries.
How can I be of help to the people affected by Sandy ? Do we have people from the Quad Cities going out there ?
Hi Sandy, Send us an email at hd_foundation@homedepot.com. We’ll see if there are any opportunities to let you know of. Thanks!