BREMERTON — A horde of orange T-shirts and aprons descended on the Kitsap Rescue Mission on Nov. 10, and there were smiles to go around.
On that date, 30 area The Home Depot associates from nine different stores around the Puget Sound area met at the Kitsap Rescue Mission, 810 6th St., Bremerton, to make some very necessary home improvements. The mission provides services to veterans and serves as an advocate for their needs as well as serving as a shelter for homeless women, children and men. The work hey helped do will ultimately nearly double the mission’s capacity to serve.
The helping hand was part of the annual The Home Depot national Celebration of Service campaign that gives back to veterans every year between Sept. 1 to Veterans Day, according to Kyna Burke, The Home Depot Silverdale store manager. “This company has a long-term commitment to getting homeless veterans off the street,” she said. Additionally, The Home Depot Foundation has pledged to grow its commitment to veteran-related causes to $250,000,000 by 2020, said Burke.
This year, the foundation gave $24,000 to the Kitsap Rescue Mission project; the money went for the lumber package and plumbing, she said. Burke and the other The Home Depot volunteers tackled nine major jobs over the 11-day period and were able to accomplish eight of them; when they pulled up the concrete in what had been an car repair shop to trench for new sewer lines, they discovered polluted soil, so that project had to be put on hold until the necessary reviews and corrections are made. But, they were able to complete the other eight demolition projects upstairs where someone had once started to prepare the area for condo apartments.
Those projects included demolishing all of the walls and pulling up all of the self-leveling mortar on the floors, according to Burke “We also stripped the stucco off the walls down to the bare concrete. We had to take the upstairs area down to the bare studs and make it back into one large room for classes and in-treatment living quarters.”
In past years, Burke said she and other local The Home Depot volunteers have “installed wheel chair ramps, cleared land after giant storms for a veteran’s widow, installed steps for the Retsil and landscaping around the facility, and put up a play set for a birthday girl whose dad was deployed. Just to name a few…We do things for other people, but November is our time to give back to veterans. We like to roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty.”
This is the 10th year Burke has volunteered to work on Home Depot’s Celebration of Service projects in the Puget Sound area. “We love doing stuff like this,” she said.
About The Home Depot Celebration of Service
Since the first The Home Depot store opened in 1979, giving back has been a core value for the Company and a passion for its associates. Today, The Home Depot, in partnership with The Home Depot Foundation, focuses its philanthropic efforts on improving the homes and lives of U.S. military veterans and their families and aiding communities affected by natural disasters. Through Team Depot, the Company’s associate-led volunteer force, thousands of associates dedicate their time and talents to these efforts in the communities where they live and work.
Since 2011, The Home Depot Foundation has invested more than $160 million to provide safe housing to veterans, and along with the help of Team Depot volunteers, has transformed more than 25,600 homes for veterans. To learn more and see Team Depot in action, visit www.homedepot.com/teamdepot.
About Kitsap Rescue Mission
The Kitsap Rescue Mission was founded in 2009 when two leaders from the Bread of Life Mission in Seattle recognized the need for help for the homeless on the Kitsap Peninsula. It exist to assist the homeless and needy on the Kitsap Peninsula, who desire change, to experience the love of Christ and restoration of body, mind and spirit. For more information please visit, www.kitsaprescue.org or Facebook.
