"Kiwanis Clubs say "Thank You Home Depot!"

ORANGE ANGELS A GODSEND TO FAMILIES IN NEED

June 10, 1997  The Davis Enterprise        Link to KIWANIS FAMILY HOUSE     Link to our photos at the house

KIWANIS FAMILY HOUSE AT UCD MED CENTER GETS FACELIFT FROM VOLUNTEERS AT HOME DEPOT. The Kiwanis Club has a motto: "We build." Simple but true, according to the president of the Southeast Sacramento Kiwanis Club, Ron Haas. "We build within the community for a better community," he said. "We formed quite a few years ago to help the community by helping people who can't help themselves." Consistent with that call, in 1984, members of 23 Northern California and Nevada Kiwanis clubs - including the two clubs in Davis - built the Kiwanis Family House.

Located across the street from UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, it's a place where family members of critically ill and injured children in the hospital's care can reside. Because of the generous vision of Kiwanis Club members, these families have a place to stay, inexpensively. The house affords room and board, laundry and kitchen facilities, the therapeutic benefits of keeping families together in times of crisis, and the opportunity for family-to-family emotional support. More than 3,000 families have stayed at the Kiwanis Family House in the past 13 years. "The majority of people that stay here can't afford anything else," Haas said. For those who can afford it, $10 is the modest price for a night's stay. There are two beds and one family allowed per room. Just enough space for mom, dad or other relatives trading off during vigils at the nearby hospital. Until recently, though, the house was in sore need of a facelift. Dark wood paneling encased the walls of the 14 bedroom facility, and carpets had worn thin from foot traffic.

Enter the so called "Orange Angels"-Home Depot employees wearing orange vests as they perform community service. Like the Kiwanians., Home Depot employees also believe in volunteerism. "We have what I think is a pretty interesting community affairs philosophy," said Amy Friend of Home Depot's public relations department. "The way we look at it is our time and skills are more important than any money we can donate. "The Kiwanis House is exactly the kind of thing that we like to get involved in. It's a worthwhile site that needed repair and we have the people and the products to make those repairs." Karen Marez, who manages one of Home Depot's Sacramento stores, received a letter from the Southeast Sacramento club along with Polaroid photos of the Kiwanis House, families in residence and their children. "Everybody here who saw the pictures, their eyes started tearing up seeing these kids and these families," Marez says. "We didn't have to think twice about it. It was just, 'Yeah, we've got to do it.' You have to do it for the kids."

So they went to work. Kiwanis members made a presentation to Sacramento Home Depot employees and a sign-up sheet made the rounds for people interested in donating their time to the project. Marez estimates that 60 to 80 people gave up their days off to pitch in. The hours were long and the work unpaid, Jan Pollack, director of UC Davis Volunteer Services, knows for a fact that some volunteers weren't hesitant to put in unusually late hours. "I was just so impressed with the employees; they were volunteering on their days off," she said. "I was handling the alarms at the house and I would find that they were being turned on at 2 and 3 in the morning after they finished their work. I mean, this was not on Home Depot time, they did this for free. Yards of paneling were torn down to be replaced with bright, white paint. Each bedroom was furnished with branch-new beds, mattresses and white laminate armoires. Every room and hallway was re-carpeted, and bathrooms and showers were re-tiled. The back yard was enclosed by a redwood fence and a matching redwood gazebo was placed in the middle of the yard, offering a new play area for children staying at the house. One of the house's two kitchens received a new stove and oven, and potted plants, flowers and shrubs were incorporated into the landscape. Old furniture was taken, piece by piece, to Home Depot stores. There, they were stripped and refinished as part of the stores' customer training classes.

Surveying the house's new amenities, Haas, a jovial fellow with a quick grin, asked one mother-in-residence whose son is being treated for spinal meningitis at UCD, "How are those new beds?" "The beds are great," she said. "It's just my little boy I worry about, now." Another family, hailing from Red Bluff, had to make a quick transition to the Kiwanis House after their daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Said the mother, weary after a long day at the hospital, "After my daughter was diagnosed, we didn't even get a chance to go home. She had to go straight to UCD for treatment and we didn't even have a clue where we were going to stay. "The first night we were sleeping on the hospital sofa until they gave us a set of keys and took us over here and set us all up," she said. "This has been such a blessing."

Reflecting on her company's contributions, Marez said, "I think it's real important that others go ahead and get involved like this. "I think a lot of times we're so focused on the money and the dollar amount that we forget about what we can do for the communities we're in. "This opened my eyes so much. I don't think that we're doing enough in the company, I think we need to do even more." The evidence of her efforts was embodied in a recent visit to the house. Said Marez, "I went out there a couple of weeks ago and three families came up and hugged me and said 'You really are Orange Angels.' It was wonderful."