The Home Depot came through in more ways than one for a Florida playground build this summer. First, they let a longtime nonprofit customer know about KaBOOM! Challenge Grants. Then, they donated playground equipment, and several THD employees even turned out for the build itself.

Thanks to The Home Depot’s help, Immokalee Non-Profit Housing and I HOPE (Immokalee Helping Our People in Emergencies) joined together to build a much-needed playground for the residents and children of two Immokalee low-income housing developments. I HOPE is a long-term disaster recovery organization in Florida, helping to mitigate the effects of Hurricane Wilma. They’re getting into community enrichment projects like playgrounds. I HOPE applied for and received a Challenge Grant and then sought out Immokalee Non-Profit Housing, which provides decent, affordable housing to low-income residents, as a build partner.

“The children absolutely love it,” said Sheryl Soukup, executive director of Immokalee Non-Profit Housing. “The playground isn’t the level we’d envisioned it to be, but we’re very grateful for getting it there. We plan to continue to enhance the playground.”

Although Immokalee and I HOPE would have liked a bigger playground, they’ve still come a long way. The previous playspace had only a little bit of equipment to serve about 170 children in the neighboring housing developments. The developments house farm workers and low-come families, 70 percent of whom are Hispanic and 20 percent are Haitian, said Dave Hansen, a project manager for I HOPE.

I HOPE and Immokalee brought the community together to get the playspace built, including several children who lived in the developments and even a son of a THD employee who used his own money to buy spray paint to spruce up the existing play equipment. About 25 neighborhood residents and 25 THD employees came out on a very hot day to put the playground together.

“The volunteers did everything from cooking and serving lunch, kids digging for equipment and raking, and actually building the equipment,” Sheryl said. “The housing is dilapidated and the community is in need of assistance. When the playground equipment came in, it brightened up the whole area. It’s a ray of sunshine in the neighborhood.”

Speaking of sunshine, the volunteers did have to deal with some summer weather.

“It was hotter than heck!” Dave said. “Everyone bucked up and got a little sunburned. But it went smoothly. Everyone showed up at around 7:30 in the morning [on Saturday] and broke into different teams. It was a real festive atmosphere.”

The group got the playground 90 percent done on Saturday and some THD employees came on Sunday to finish. Dave says their long relationship with THD was essential their successful playground partnership.

“You have to lay the groundwork and build the relationship so when something comes up, you can take advantage of it,” he said. “You already know folks and have a good working relationship, and know each other’s skills and capabilities. Because of our other projects, The Home Depot said they’d like to help out. They jumped on it and were very enthusiastic.”