Not just child's play - KaBoom teams with Home Depot to build playground - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Home Channel News, Sept 3, 2001

Before opening its first inner-city store in Washington, Depot teamed with KaBOOM! to build two area playgrounds

WASHINGTON -- Earlier this summer, the "playground" for children living in or near Jetu Apartments in the impoverished Ward 5 of the District of Columbia consisted of a dumpster parked on a vacant lot from which the young kids would leap onto a mattress that served as a dilapidated trampoline.

But on July 31, these children were gamboling on monkey bars, slides and swings that became part of two playground areas that were built on the premises of this apartment complex. More than 150 Home Depot associates and executives descended on this neighborhood to participate in the eight-hour-long construction of this project, which was organized by KaBOOM!, a 6-year-old organization that builds playgrounds in mostly poor communities in the United States and Canada.

This playground, whose design was created by a supplier called Playworld Systems, was the 55th project of this kind in which Home Depot has participated, and the 34th in the D.C. area. And this being the nation's capitol, the event brought out political and business notables such as Bob Johnson, president of Black Entertainment Television; and Eleanor Holmes Norton, U.S. Representative for the District of Columbia.

"Home Depot has become one of us anyway -- we'll finally have a place to go to buy a hammer -- but they sure know how to move in," Norton gushed. She was referring to Home Depot's first store in D.C.'s inner city, a 135,000-square-foot warehouse home center to be opened next June on the corner of Brentwood Road and Rhode Island Avenue, about a mile from Jetu Apartments, whose residents are predominantly African American with average annual incomes of $11,000. That store is the result of two years of negotiating between the dealer and the city. (The retailer currently operates 30 units in the Washington area.)

"This is a great day for the District of Columbia, a great day for Jetu Apartments and a great day for Home Depot. But most important, it's a great day for the children," said the retailer's president and CEO, Bob Nardelli, who was at the playground job site at 8 that morning, and who toggled energetically between spreading mulch on the grounds and spreading the word about his company's philanthropic efforts during a battery of media interviews. The two playgrounds -- which take up around 4,000 square feet and whose donated materials and labor costs were valued at more than $50,000 -- are benefiting more than 500 children in the neighborhood.

Co-workers who participated in the playground construction greeted Nardelli's comments with rousing cheers. They came from stores in and around Washington, and all had volunteered their days off, according to company spokesman John Simley. One volunteer was Robert Riddick, who has worked for the retailer for eight years, currently at its Sterling, Va., store. This was the fifth playground he's helped build. "Home Depot does so much for its associates that something like this is our way of returning the favor' Riddick said. 'There's more to life than just work, you know." Greg Menard, who's been with the chain nearly nine years and works at its Merrifield, Va., store, added that working on the playground was the way he and the company could "give something back to the community; that's what it's all about, isn't it?"

John Wills, president of Home Depot's Mid-Atlantic division, noted that the retailer was on track this year to exceed its record of volunteering six million staff hours to charitable and philanthropic activities. "It energizes our associates and it energizes the community about our company' said Wills, who, like all of his co-workers on the site, was wearing an orange T-shirt bearing a 'Team Depot" logo.

Expanding sponsorship

More than 300 people in total -- including around 40 from Youth Build, a group with which Home Depot works regularly -- volunteered for this playground-raising event, whose short time span demanded a logistical coordination of staff power that was remarkable, if at times antediluvian. (A good number of those on hand seemed dedicated solely to shoveling mulch from huge piles onto tarpaulins and dragging the loads to the two playgrounds, as if using wheelbarrows would somehow have undervalued the sweat equity being expended.)

NASCAR, one of the co-sponsors, was represented by its president, Mike Helton, and Tony Stewart, the volatile driver of Home Depot's stock car No. 20, who pitched in during the construction of the playground, which has a racing motif. The volunteer work force also included about 50 people from William C. Smith & Co., Jetu Apartments' property manager. The complex, according to Smith president John Ritz, is in the midst of an 18-month, $3 million renovation of the 426-unit housing facility's windows, doors and common grounds. (Ritz added that this neighborhood, at one time infested by drug dealers, has been made considerably more livable through cooperation between law enforcement and community groups.)