Florida Post 74 receives grant over $5,000, as well as free labor, for repairs to floor, ceiling.
Since 2011, the Home Depot Foundation has invested more than $650 million in veteran causes and improved more than 70,000 veteran homes and facilities – including American Legion posts.
That commitment – and that of its Team Depot volunteers associates – was on full display recently in Sebring, Fla. Over the course of two days in late May, Team Depot volunteers worked at American Legion Post 74 to make thousands of dollars in repairs to both the meeting room and the canteen area.
Adjutant Jim Clark said the post had previously received repairs through Team Depot yeas ago, and that a Post 74 Legionnaire reached out to him about pursuing that avenue again. The post provided Team Depot with all of the necessary information, including proof of insurance and other paperwork.
“The next thing I know we got the grant for just under $5,400,” Clark said. “They scheduled and delivered everything to the post, and we set a date when they could come in and start.”
The work included putting in new vinyl plank flooring, as well as new ceiling tiles in both the canteen and meeting room. Clark said the tiles had become stained when smoking was allowed within the post, which was disallowed in 2025.
On the day before the work was supposed to start, Clark said three Team Depot volunteers came to the post to work on the floor in the meeting room. “The next day another six or seven people came (to work in the canteen),” he said. “Team Depot, they’re just wonderful to veterans. They do a great job. For them to do that for us – we’re a small post, but we’re an active post – it just made it so much easier for us because (the cost of repairs) didn’t affect our donations and what we do for the community.”
The grant and donated labor allows Post 74 to continue its support for those around it. Recipients of its financial assistance include Meals on Wheels, the Boys & Girls Club, JROTC and St. Jude. The post also provides support and programs for local veterans and youth.
“If we’re just sitting there idly not doing anything, I’m sure this never would have happened. But we do what we can do out in the community,” Clark said. “To us, it was invaluable. I put the cost for the labor for two days for that many people as probably almost the same as what the grant was, if not more. Them covering the cost of all that, improving the post – getting the smokey smell out of there, cleaning the place up – that allows us to donate money to causes throughout the community.”
Post 74 Commander Kim Deierlein encouraged other American Legion posts in need of costly repairs to reach out to their local Home Depot. “It doesn’t hurt to ask,” she said. “People just need to know that the services are out there. And I feel it’s a mutual thing because (Team Depot volunteers) get the recognition of them helping out. So they’ve got a feather in their caps as well.”
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