Home Depot Gives Veterans a Helping Hand

The Home Depot’s two-month-long “Celebration of Service” cause campaign last fall enlisted the help of employees, customers and a rock band to help repair and renovate the homes of military veterans.The retailer allocated 5% of proceeds from special "Celebration of Service" gift cards sold in stores and online to The Home Depot Foundation, whose stated mission is to make sure every veteran has a safe place to call home. Over the course of the campaign, which ran from Sept. 11 through Veteran’s Day on Nov. 11, customers purchased more than 35,000 cards to raise $240,000. The musical tie-in came from 3 Doors Down, which pledged $1 from each homedepot.com sale of its latest CD, Time of My Life (released last July). The band has established a following among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with songs “When I’m Gone” and “Here Without You.” Band members are also personally involved in veterans’ charities. The band took part in a Celebration of Service kickoff event on Aug. 24 in Los Angeles, joining with Home Depot employees and other volunteers to make repairs at a residence for homeless vets.Audio-enabled standees promoted the campaign in stores, letting shoppers listen to a 3 Doors Down song by pushing a button. The displays also merchandised the themed gift cards and carried a QR code linking to the band’s CD on homedepot.com. The effort also included employees participating in apron-decorating contests in the chain’s Northern, Southern and Western divisions. Home-page leaderboard ads supported.The program involved additional elbow grease, with Home Depot employees making up part of the nearly 9,000 volunteers enlisted in partnership with nonprofit The Mission Continues to work on 320 renovation projects. During the program's final week, for instance, Home Depot crews finished up repairs at Veterans Memorial Maywood Park outside Chicago and installed new, energy-efficient windows at the home of a disabled veteran in Connecticut.Throughout the campaign, The Home Depot Foundation presented roughly $9 million to 28 nonprofits that address the housing needs of veterans, among them Operation Homefront, Volunteers of America and Habitat for Humanity.“While our 2011 Celebration of Service campaign has concluded, The Home Depot Foundation and Team Depot will continue on our mission to ensure that every veteran has a safe place to call home," said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation, in a media release.Last April, the Foundation pledged $30 million over three years to the effort. It has awarded more than $270 million to such initiatives since its founding in 2002.

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