plug for a good corporate citizen

[deborah]

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend. I hope you will indulge me as this post has nothing to do with Chalet so am taking some liberties.

I do alot of volunteer work for our local youth shelter. Last Monday, I heard that I was successful in obtaining a $25,000 Home Depot Foundation grant to be used to revitalize the shelter - making it a safe, healthy place for homeless kids. This company was incredible from start to finish during the application process - encouraging me to up our request for the $5,000 Community Grants that they give out all year round to this special grant for emergency and low income housing - they do these every 4 months.

Our shelter is just one of 20, across Canada, that will getting this assistance - that means this quarter Home Depot is donating $500,000 in just these grants alone while they give hundreds of the smaller grants throughout the year and all year round. And every penny is given to community projects - no "We donate nationally" which translates to no local help, sponsorship of high profile organizations only................. The amount that this company gives back each year is in the millions. They also work with you - a team of Home Depot employees will be coming to the Shelter to help us with some of the things that need to be done. Saving us labour costs - crucial to our charity's bottom line. We operate on a very tight budget with little to spare for capital improvements. Ironic when the house needs so much to be repaired but that is reality.

Anyways, I just wanted to blow Home Depot's horn - they are pretty modest about this. In fact, while I knew about their foundation as as a designer I spend quite a bit of time there with clients - none of the other Board members had even heard of the Home Depot Foundation. The company gets alot of knocks for being "American" and a "big box store" but very few pats for giving so generously to grass roots organizations that really need help. And in such a classy way - I have never dealt with a foundation that was so open and so helpful. Foundations get so many requests for assistance that you are asked not to contact them personally but in this case - the assistant manager went out of his way to establish a personal connection and educate himself about our organization. I am still in shock over how helpful everyone was - not an anonymous process and I look forward to working with them re implementing the grant. Within 2 days of hearing that the Shelter got the monies - they had the paperwork to us to start the process. Now that in and of itself would be amazing as large companies usually are not known for quick turnarounds!

Thanks for listening and the next time you need that screw, piece of wood, can of paint or new tile - please think seriously about giving Home Depot your business if you do not already. You can be assured that the community that you live in is benefitting from it! Go in and talk to them about their giving - I am sure you will find them as fantastic a team as I have here in **.

Deborah

[treckers]

Hello Deborah (again),

This is my last post of the evening but felt compelled to respond to this. I too was not aware that this retailer had such a track record of giving - very positive to see as I must admit that I do view these large chain stores in somewhat of a negative light. This does bring another perspective to that. I hope that your renovations go well.

Will