Giving Coast to Coast

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation awarded $50,000 through the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help repair the foundation and exterior walls of Central School. The former school, built in 1905, serves as a community arts center that provides vital arts education in the southeastern Arizona town. It is one of 10 former historic schools nationwide that received funding from Lowe's Foundation in 2010.

Lowe's Flatbed Distribution Center and two Lowe's stores in the Stockton area partnered to turn Washington Elementary School's main entrance into a beautifully landscaped welcome area. Lowe's Heroes completed the improvements just in time for students returning to school from summer break. Fifteen Lowe's volunteers spent more than 50 hours planning, trimming, digging and planting.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation contributed $1.25 million to help Skills / Compétences Canada promote skilled trades and technology professions to youth. Lowe's five-year commitment will support competitions and a yearly grant program aimed at engaging high school students and teachers looking to improve their campus, curriculum and surrounding community.

A $5,000 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant is keeping students safe at Pennock Elementary School. The grant funded a split-rail fence installed at the school's bus loading and unloading areas. Before and after school, students play in the area and often had been seen chasing balls into the street. The fence prevents the students from running directly between the buses. The funds also helped cover the installation of fencing at the front entrance to help beautify the area.

Dr. Emily Abrams Massey, principal at Seaborn Lee Elementary School, said the school was "overwhelmed by Lowe's generosity and commitment to student achievement" after receiving a $50,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation. The school is using the funds to buy tools and supplies for its DIY (Do-It-Yourself) School Improvement Project, which includes renovations in the bathrooms and common areas of the nearly 50-year-old building. The school also is upgrading the teachers' lounge, workroom and conference rooms, and expanding its outdoor garden.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to Vallivue School District for Rivervue Middle School. The funds will help the alternative school replace carpet, paint walls, replace 1950s' light fixtures, add baseball and softball fields, and make other repairs and upgrades. The school offers smaller classes, hands-on learning and counseling services for students with learning disabilities or academic, behavioral or emotional challenges.

Lowe's Heroes from Lowe's Regional Distribution Center have made a huge difference at King Elementary School. Through a $3,000 donation and many hours of volunteer labor, the school now has a freshly painted gymnasium, classrooms and hallways. To top off the paint job, Lowe's Heroes added a mural in the hallway to coincide with King's Rising Stars theme.

Prosperity Elementary School's greenhouse is now a reality, thanks to a $5,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation. Students have planted lima beans and peas as part of a science experiment in the 8-by-24-foot structure, and they have plans to grow a variety of plants. The greenhouse, built in the store by Lowe's employees, has practical applications for fourth-graders, who are tested on earth science on their state assessments. School officials also plan to sell herbs to restaurants.

SkillsUSA^® chapters at 17 schools nationwide, including the Lewiston Regional Technical Center, are using their 2010 Lowe's Campus Improvement Grants of up to $10,000 to improve schools or to enhance the student SkillsUSA experience. In Lewiston, carpentry and electrician students are transforming one of the center's classrooms into a career center that will provide 16 updated laptop computers for college research, career assessments and online testing. It also will be used for club meetings and a distance-learning program.

The students and staff at Bowe Elementary School got an early Christmas present, one that had been on their wish list for a long time. In early December, the school opened a new playground made possible with a $75,000 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant. Long-tenured members of the staff said the school has never had a playground. Once limited to a blacktop, students now have their pick of new swings, climbing structures, slides and monkey bars.

Volunteers from Lowe's Linda Vista store completed major renovations at Adolfo Prieto Elementary School, with the help of a $20,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation. Lowe's Heroes painted the school's exterior and interior, benches and planters. They installed galvanized pipes in the kitchen and bathroom and a fence around the school, repaired toilets, water fountains and the basketball and soccer areas. The volunteers also renovated the playground and installed new equipment. The work benefitted nearly 1,000 students.

Eighty employees from Lowe's Sendero store joined students and teachers from Felipe Angeles Elementary School to renovate the 600-student school. With support from a $20,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, Lowe's volunteers remodeled restrooms, painted six building exteriors, remodeled the school's grounds, repaired drainage, installed ceramic flooring and painted the roof and inside doors. Volunteers also constructed a plaza where the children could sit to eat lunch and enjoy recess.

Clark Preparatory Academy received a $100,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation for major classroom upgrades. The grant was used to put new computers and work stations in each of the school's 18 classrooms along with in-classroom libraries. The new home economics learning center, designed by a Lowe's of Harper Woods employee, includes a demonstration kitchen and a sewing room. The kitchen features oak cabinetry and stainless steel appliances.

When Whittier Elementary School began to look a little run-down, parents and students decided to take action. The parent council applied for and received a $5,000 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant, and they put it to good use. They landscaped the front of the school and planted hundreds of tulip bulbs as well as drought-tolerant native grasses and bushes. Volunteers also planted five large trees around the playground, which had no shade, spruced up the courtyard area and installed a new bench at the school entry.

Twenty-five Lowe's Heroes, representing the Call Center team in Wilkesboro, contributed more than 500 volunteer hours to spruce up Wilkes Developmental Day School, a five-star school serving children with developmental delays and disabilities. Lowe's Heroes helped replace fencing, used 50 gallons of paint to refresh hallways and transformed the teachers' lounge. Lowe's also surprised the school with new appliances and cushioned benches so teachers can watch their students during playtime.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation's $30,000 grant helped fund Project Save, an after-school program for Las Vegas-area students at risk of not passing proficiency exams. Created by the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP, the 16-week proficiency program is helping 100 high school students and 100 middle school students improve their math, science, reading and writing skills. More than 30 Lowe's Heroes volunteered their time to help with classroom instruction.

With the help of a $23,750 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, Rock Hill schools can now build an outdoor classroom on the campus of the Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies. The classroom will be open to all elementary schools during the day and to the community during evenings and on weekends. It will feature a butterfly garden, a small greenhouse, a cactus garden, a vegetable garden and a weather station.

Damage from severe weather a few years ago forced Farmersville Intermediate School to renovate its campus, restricting the space available for outdoor study areas. Now, the school is creating an outdoor science lab so students can explore the area's natural habitat. A $5,000 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant was used to install wheelchair-accessible walkways for the lab, helping to turn an empty field into a welcoming and stimulating learning environment.

Marcus Whitman Junior High School's Landscape Club provided the finishing touches for the school's new garden, putting in plants to complete the new functional outdoor space funded by a $2,500 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant. The Trailblazer Community Garden Project created a garden area near the entrance of their building where students can eat outside, relax on a bench and use a footpath to get to their next classroom.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation awarded a $4,700 Lowe's Toolbox for Education^® grant to Abrams Elementary School for the purchase of a new playground set. This new equipment replaces a number of old, smaller wooden structures that were in use for more than 20 years. The Toolbox grant allowed the school to purchase and install the playground set at least a year ahead of schedule.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation has awarded nearly $3 million in grants since 2008 to aid the rehabilitation of historic schools across the United States. The Anchorage Pioneer Schoolhouse, which is approaching its 100th birthday and is almost as old as the city of Anchorage itself, is used for community events and as a meeting place for the Anchorage Woman's Club and the Anchorage Garden Club. Lowe's Foundation's $50,000 grant will be used to restore windows, replace the roof, repaint the exterior and improve accessibility.

Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation has awarded nearly $3 million in grants since 2008 to aid the rehabilitation of historic schools across the United States. The Anchorage Pioneer Schoolhouse, which is approaching its 100th birthday and is almost as old as the city of Anchorage itself, is used for community events and as a meeting place for the Anchorage Woman's Club and the Anchorage Garden Club. Lowe's Foundation's $50,000 grant will be used to restore windows, replace the roof, repaint the exterior and improve accessibility.

Lowe's Heroes from four area facilities teamed up to make improvements to the March Field Air Museum. Employees from Lowe's of Moreno Valley, the Perris Regional Distribution Center, the Beaumont Flatbed Distribution Center and the Moreno Valley Holding Facility volunteered nearly 400 hours to help build a Distinguished Flying Cross monument and landscape the area with flowers, trees and shrubs.

Lowe's, in partnership with Hockey Canada, is refurbishing local ice rinks in dire need of repair. Many of the community arenas in use today were funded by the federal government's Centennial Fund in 1967 and have not seen renovations since. Over the next five years, Lowe's Canada will invest more than $500,000 in grants to refurbish two rinks each year. The first $100,000 goes to the Frank McCool Arena in Calgary, which has not been upgraded in 44 years, and the Vaughan Maple Lions Arena. Rink refurbishments include upgrades to the dressing rooms and spectator benches, lighting improvements and siding repairs.

When a tornado touched down in Leamington, tearing roofs off homes and uprooting 100-year-old trees, employees from Lowe's of South Windsor jumped into action. The twister hit amid a torrential flood that drowned crops in the Harrow area and left ditches overflowing across the southern reaches of the county. Lowe's volunteers delivered two truckloads of bottled water, flashlights, gloves, tarps, garbage bags and other cleanup supplies to help residents begin their recovery.

Ten Lowe's Heroes from Lowe's of South Brampton provided labor and materials to enhance two 27-foot-long balconies at Brampton Civic Hospital, making visiting time more comfortable for family and friends of patients. The décor Lowe's provided included patio furniture, plants, swings and trees. "It has allowed for an increased quality of life for our patients and has helped the unit transform into a place that is warm and welcoming," the hospital staff wrote in a thank-you note.

Nearly 100 employees from eight South Florida Lowe's stores converged on Lake Worth to give children with neuromuscular diseases a real summer camp experience. Lowe's Heroes completed modifications at Gold Coast Christian Camp to make it handicap-accessible and ready to host MDA summer camp. They added ramps, sidewalks and accessible showers among other renovations after learning that some kids had to travel more than three hours to the west coast of Florida to attend the nearest MDA camp.

More than 150 volunteers from 33 Lowe's stores in the Metro Atlanta area volunteered their time and skills to landscape Legion Park and three homes in Austell, as well as Compton Elementary School in Powder Springs. Volunteers planted trees, shrubs and flowers at all the locations, which had been damaged by floods. Legion Park was completely under water a year earlier. Lowe's Heroes brought in hundreds of plants and created a landscaped botanical garden over two days to support Austell's efforts to reopen the park by spring.

Lowe's of Twin Falls selected a safe house for teens for its Lowe's Heroes project. The safe house provides shelter and counseling services for children in need. More than a dozen Lowe's volunteers laid river rock around the front entrance and added benches, planters and lighting to create a warm and inviting area. Lowe's donated all the supplies for the project, and Lowe's Heroes also spruced up the backyard by adding seating and a hammock for relaxation, more lighting, a tree and a flower garden.

Lowe's of Pikeville quickly mobilized to help American Red Cross chapters respond after local homes and businesses were flooded following heavy rains. Lowe's opened a $5,000 store account, allowing the Red Cross to pick up shovels, rakes, trash bags and hand sanitizer to deliver to residents in Pike County, which was declared a federal disaster area. Lowe's employees loaded a flatbed truck with additional supplies — including water, gloves and insect repellent — and distributed them to residents.

When Hurricane Alex battered Mexico, Lowe's Sendero and Linda Vista store teams distributed more than 28,000 bottles of water, buckets and cleaning supplies in the hardest-hit areas. In addition to donating money, clothes and food, Lowe's employees filled cisterns with water from the stores and delivered them to affected communities. Lowe's also teamed with soccer stars Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos to supply hundreds of paint kits and buckets of roof coating to the cities of Escobedo, Garcia, Guadalupe and Santa Catarina.

More than 40 employees from nine Twin Cities Lowe's stores dedicated their time and skills to help build and renovate homes for families in need during the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. Lowe's contributed $375,000 to Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Work Project, a weeklong effort that helped build and repair 86 homes in six cities across the United States. In Minnesota, the community revitalization work centered on 26 homes in the Hawthorne Eco Village in north Minneapolis and the Payne Phalen neighborhood on St. Paul's east side.

Lowe's continues to partner with The Nature Conservancy to protect the forests of North America through large-scale conservation, including a focus on forestland in western Montana for the second consecutive year. Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation's $350,000 contribution is helping to protect 650,000 acres of critical forest habitat in the Crown of the Continent region. The gift will help sustain streams, wetlands and a variety of species in the 10-million acre region.

Members of the Greater Charlotte Boys & Girls Club are playing in a new basketball gym, thanks to the generosity of Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation. The Charlotte club is one of 19 Boys & Girls Clubs across the country that received a grant for repairs or improvements through a $1 million donation from Lowe's Foundation. The funds helped the club refurbish everything from the floor to the hoops, and Lowe's employees teamed with the Charlotte Bobcats and their mascot, Rufus, to build a project with club members.

After receiving a $22,000 grant from Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation to help renovate its 77-acre Pinyon Canyon Center camp, the YWCA Middle Rio Grande asked if Lowe's could lend a hand with labor. Not only did Lowe's donate supplies to rehabilitate the main lodge, which had been in disrepair for eight years, Lowe's provided 15 volunteers over three days to help with repairs. The volunteers installed a patio and a new roof, painted the wood deck, replaced fixtures and painted the bunk house.

Lowe's support during National Rebuilding Day in April helped reunite a Bergenfield family. George and Joy Vrakas have three children; one of them is autistic and had been receiving 24-hour care at a residential facility. Without sufficient living arrangements at home, it had been two years since he had lived with his family. Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation's $15,000 grant supported the construction of two bedrooms in the basement, freeing up one of the two main-floor bedrooms for the 12-year-old's homecoming.

Four Buffalo-area Lowe's stores conducted skills training classes to help more than 120 women participate in Habitat for Humanity^® Buffalo's Women Build^® project. The training was critical to the success of the build in which women contributed more than 5,000 hours to complete a four-bedroom home in partnership with the new owners, the Shalamba family. Lowe's sponsored National Women Build Week and contributed $1 million to help build 200 homes.

Nearly 40 employees from six Lowe's stores in Rhode Island volunteered more than 340 hours to help renovate the second floor of the South Side Boys & Girls Club of Providence. Lowe's Heroes remodeled the kitchen and installed new floor tiles, cabinets, fixtures and top-of-the-line appliances. The renovations helped support Kid's Café, a meal program that feeds more than 500 club members nightly.

Employees from Lowe's of Weatherford pitched in on a communitywide project to install new playground equipment at the Pythian Home. Funded fully by private donations, the Pythian Home serves as a safe haven for children who have suffered a family hardship. Lowe's started the project as a labor of love and spent two years planning it and raising funds. Seventeen Lowe's Heroes teamed with community volunteers to install the new equipment over two days.

Lowe's employees throughout the Seattle area joined Habitat for Humanity^® and the wives of players from the NFL's Seattle Seahawks on a Women Build^® project. The site of the build was an original Boeing plant that made planes in the 1940s. The area is a combination of housing from for-profit and nonprofit construction, subsidized housing and recreational meeting space. Lowe's Heroes represented stores in Olympia, Everett, Federal Way, Rainier, Bellevue and Kent.

About 50 Lowe's Heroes from the Cheyenne Regional Distribution Center devoted more than 300 volunteer hours to help patients, their families and friends enjoy the outdoors at the Davis Hospice Center. The nonprofit organization hadn't been able to keep up with the grounds. Lowe's Heroes cleaned up the area by pulling weeds, mowing, trimming, remulching and replanting plants and shrubbery that had died. They also designed and constructed a pergola to provide some shade.