TEAM DEPOT SUCCESS STORIES

Team Depot blends tools and schools for MLK Day

“Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The recent Martin Luther King Jr. holiday inspired countless volunteer projects across the country, including a special coast-to-coast Team Depot effort that sent associates back to school.

Despite a chilly downpour, spirits were still bright at 135th Street Elementary School in Gardena, Calif., where volunteers painted indoor and outdoor murals, planted flowers, built planter benches and painted pottery.

Team Depot volunteers at 135th Street Elementary School in Gardena, Calif

“The MLK Day project at 135th Street Elementary School was a great success because of the individual efforts of each and everyone there,” says Richard Hernandez, store manager at Store 1858 in nearby Compton. “If you do enough small things right, big things can happen."

Meanwhile in Seattle, 100 Team Depot volunteers at West Seattle Elementary School spruced up an art room and theater with storage cabinets and shelving.

They also built cedar planter benches.

Karin Musselman, department head at Store 4741 in Poulsbo, Wash., said “the energy and excitement put forth by the Home Depot associates was amazing, from the Home Depot cheer at the beginning to the can-do attitude at the end. But I would have to say the most memorable thing was the smiles on the faces of the children and teachers. It was a lot of fun.”

In Atlanta, 60 associates from the SSC joined forces with employees from ChoicePoint and RBC Centura Bank at John F. Kennedy Middle School. The team painted classrooms, signs and colorful murals designed by Cartoon Network. Volunteers also built benches, replenished mulch and installed outdoor carpet at the school’s outdoor classroom.

Volunteers completed similar projects in Buffalo, N.Y., Los Angeles and Mesa, Ariz.

The MLK Day effort is one of the latest to arise from Hands On Schools (HOS), a Points of Light and Hands On Network initiative aimed at transforming schools into dynamic learning centers that foster student achievement and community engagement.

HOS was created in February of 2006, when The Home Depot endowed Points of Light and Hands On Network with a $3 million challenge grant.

“We saw an opportunity to combine the collective resources of parents, communities, and corporations and create Hands On Schools, which will reestablish schools as the focal point of the community,” says Kelly Caffarelli, VP, The Home Depot Foundation.

In 2008, the final year of the program, more than 2,500 volunteers and local businesses will be engaged to reach our goal of transforming 100 school communities nationwide.

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