November 18, 2015

Legionnaire: Home Depot is here to help

By Steve B. Brooks
Membership
Legionnaire: Home Depot is here to help
Commander Mike Hall helped Post 38 get a Home Depot grant and now is encouraging other posts to do the same. (Photo by Lucas Carte/The American Legion)

After seeing the impact a Home Depot Foundation grant made on his post and local veterans, Legionnaire Mike Hall has made it his mission to share his story with others.

As senior vice commander of the Department of Colorado’s District 7, Legionnaire Mike Hall is given the opportunity to visit all of posts in his district. And when he makes those visits, he has a message: Home Depot is here to help you.

Hall, the commander of Edward D. Ballard (Security, Colo.) Post 38, witnessed firsthand the benefits of a Home Depot Foundation grant and is now trying to spread the word to other Legion posts in the area.

“(Being District 7’s senior vice commander) affords me the opportunity to talk to all posts, tell them what Home Depot can do for them (and) how they have to do it,” Hall said. “A lot of them come back to me with questions, and I’ve been the go-between between the post and (Home Depot).”

Home Depot has pledged more than $1 million through the Home Depot Foundation to renovate Legion posts and the homes of veterans throughout the United States.

For Post 38, the grant process started in February of 2015 when Hall was contacted by Home Depot Foundation representatives from Atlanta about conducting a renovation project at the post. Those reps met with Hall at the post and provided him with an overview of what they wanted to do.

On May 13, 2015, hundreds of Team Depot volunteers descended on the post. During the course of one day, those volunteers:

• Painted the outside of the post and all of the posts outlying buildings;

• Built a picnic area with a gazebo, tables and a playground for children;

• Built an American Legion community garden;

• Put lattice all around the post’s property; and

• Put siding up on one of the post’s adjacent rental properties.

But the work of the Home Depot grant didn’t stop there.

“Under our grant, they wanted to (improve) some veterans’ home,” Hall said. “So I had to select three veterans’ homes … that needed painting, gutters (and) landscaping of yards within walking distance of our post. And they (finished) all three of them. We couldn’t finish the painting, but they were able to send me a check, and I paid the painter on contract to finish the job.”

Hall said he immediately witnessed the impact the renovations had on the veterans they benefitted. “I believe the tears from the wives showed it all,” he said. “One wife explained to me, ‘We don’t know how we would have ever done this because we would have had to save the money up.’ The husband’s not working. I believe he’s a 90-percent service-disabled veteran looking for a job. She said, ‘We don’t know how we would have ever saved this money up.’ They were amazed that someone would actually come in and care.”

When the renovation work was done, there was some money left from the grant that Home Depot converted into gift cards. “That was to buy stuff we needed at the post or to help other veterans,” Hall said. “We bought several appliances (for local veterans). We had a deck built for a handicapped Korean War veteran in a wheelchair. We have used the leftover grant money to reach out, with (Home Depot’s) guidance, to help other veterans.”

Post 38’s grant started at $100,000 “but has well-exceeded because of add-ons that they kept doing because we are doing with the right thing with their money in the veterans community.”

Hall has now become a messenger for Home Depot and is willing to help any Legionnaire or veteran who wants to see their assistance. He said the first step is developing one local point of contact to work with Home Depot reps who “has got the time and is willing to invest that time for what (he or she) is going to get in the long run.”

Hall said that Home Depot completed around 75 percent of the grant process and that he was responsible for around 25 percent. “My part of it was about three hours for me to get the paperwork and all that you need to prove that you’re in good non-profit status,” he said. “The process, to me, is pretty simple. And they will guide you through the process and will give you examples of what you need.”

Hall already is looking ahead to working with Home Depot next year. “I have stayed in contact with them, and they’re wanting to do more veterans’ homes this year, and I’m looking around (District 6) for other projects that I can talk to them about helping with. I find (Home Depot) great to work with.

“How could we do it? It would take us years to be able to raise the money to be able to help veterans like they are affording the opportunity. Bless their heart is all I can say.”

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