Help From The Home Depot
By Amy DeGeus
From Kudos Magazine Special Edition 2016
It was truly a case of one good deed leading to another. On Sept. 30, about 80 Home Depot employees were volunteering their time at a community service project in Flint, building wheelchair ramps and making improvements to the homes of two veterans. The volunteer effort, part of the home improvement chain’s national community outreach, was being assisted by United Way of Genesee County. Jamie Gaskin, CEO of the local United Way, stopped by the project, but had a bigger crisis on his mind.
Less than a week earlier, a Flint doctor’s study revealed the percentage of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood had more than doubled since Flint had switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. City officials had advised people to stop drinking municipal water and install filters immediately.
Gaskin needed filters —a lot of them — immediately. He had come to the right place.
working on the project so we were able to source the filters right away.”
Home Depot managers quickly reached out to their suppliers. Within 24 hours, they had located 25,000–30,000 water filters, negotiated a price reduction of 30 percent and provided them at cost to the city of Flint and, later, the state of Michigan.
From Kudos Magazine Special Edition 2016
Help From The Home Depot
It was truly a case of one good deed leading to another. On Sept. 30, about 80 Home Depot employees were volunteering their time at a community service project in Flint, building wheelchair ramps and making improvements to the homes of two veterans. The volunteer effort, part of the home improvement chain’s national community outreach, was being assisted by United Way of Genesee County. Jamie Gaskin, CEO of the local United Way, stopped by the project, but had a bigger crisis on his mind.
Immediate Needs
Less than a week earlier, a Flint doctor’s study revealed the percentage of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood had more than doubled since Flint had switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. City officials had advised people to stop drinking municipal water and install filters immediately.
Gaskin needed filters —a lot of them — immediately. He had come to the right place.
Emergency Relief
The scheduled community service project immediately pivoted to an unscheduled public health emergency relief effort. “While we were working on the house, Jamie Gaskin came by and told me about the water crisis,” recalled Don Mandeville, Home Depot District Manager for the Greater Detroit Region.“As luck would have it, our regional merchandising manager was there as wellworking on the project so we were able to source the filters right away.”
Home Depot managers quickly reached out to their suppliers. Within 24 hours, they had located 25,000–30,000 water filters, negotiated a price reduction of 30 percent and provided them at cost to the city of Flint and, later, the state of Michigan.
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