Staff
Some students at Sweet Home Charter School got their first shot at building something on Thursday, May 5.
Others were old pros.
Eli Cruz, 6, brought his own toolbox to work on a birdhouse project sponsored and overseen by Home Depot.
Eli noted he has done some other jobs at home, such as constructing his wooden toolbox and making a gift for a neighbor.
“I built a bird table for my neighbor, Michelle,” he said. “She put bird food on it and they ate it.”
Now he has a finished birdhouse to add to his list of completed projects.
Students in personalized orange Home Depot aprons filed out to the field, where staff members and parent volunteers had set up workstations.
Principal Tavia Thornton said about 50 volunteers came out to help the youngsters build birdhouses from the kits Home Depot employees brought with them.
“This is totally donated,” Thornton said. “Home Depot has been great.”
Rose Delbozqueis, a flooring and blinds supervisor at Home Depot in Albany, said different employees get the opportunity to go out into the community for these types of projects.
“It’s pretty fun,” she said “It’s nice to see how happy it makes the kids. They feel good about themselves, they’re doing it themselves.”
Delbozqueis said the program is not limited to schools. Home Depot employees can go out to different groups, such as the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. They’ve also gone out to the Oregon Veterans Home in Lebanon to work in the garden.
Sometimes groups have asked for kits, rather than instruction or support, but she said Home Depot likes to be there on site.
While the adults were there to supervise and assist, students helped each other too.
Cailah Residor and Damian Ryan, both 7, were working on their birdhouses next to each other. When Cailah needed help stabilizing the pieces of her project so she could hammer them together, Damian was happy to lend a hand.
An adult approached.
“It’s teamwork,” he said.