HOME DEPOT® FOUNDATION GRANT
Two hundred volunteer hours were donated to help with our final outdoor project of 2009: The Southmayd Home Fleming Street Beautification Project. Of that number, more than half were by five of our Board of Directors, proving that Southmayd has a very active Board! In addition to our Board of Directors, there were ex-residents’ family members, students from Kennedy High School and Naugatuck Valley Community College. The range of ages was from 16 to 70.
Through its Building Healthy Communities grants program, The Home Depot® Foundation awarded $2,489 to Southmayd Home for this project to purchase materials, tools and equipment to improve the area located at the corner of Columbia Boulevard and extending along Fleming Street. The Home Depot® Foundation’s Building Healthy Communities grant program supports the work that local nonprofit organizations, public schools and other community organizations are doing to improve the physical health of their neighborhoods.
“Again, our volunteers rose to the task to weed and prepare the ground of the steep, sloped hill area and plant perennials; we weeded more pachysandra, pruned bushes, reconfigured the gutter downspout drainage system and installed a new decorative fence,” explained Gutierrez. “Receiving the Home Depot grant was beneficial, both to our residents and our neighbors, since this is a very visible corner of our neighborhood,” she added.
“We are delighted to support local volunteer projects aimed at creating healthier, more stable communities where families can thrive,” said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot® Foundation. “Southmayd Home deserves enormous credit for the work it is doing, and we are glad to be part of their efforts.”
About The Home Depot Foundation
The Home Depot Foundation was created in 2002 to further the community building goals of The Home Depot. The Home Depot Foundation is dedicated to building affordable homes for working families that are healthy to live in and affordable to own. To make homes healthy and affordable, the Foundation encourages developers to incorporate responsible design and use durable and quality materials to ensure that homes are more energy and water efficient, have good indoor air quality, and provide a safe and healthy space to live. Since its formation, The Home Depot Foundation has granted $120 million to nonprofit organizations and supported the development of more than 65,000 affordable, healthy homes. For more information, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org.
