(L to R) Alpha House board members Jack Goodman and Diana Chomichuk, Alpha House executive director Glenda Dean and president Karen Goodman Wong, and Home Depot manager Pamela Walker.
With help from Home Depot, Alpha House is able to renovate two of their seven kitchens.
“We can’t do this unless we have community support,” said Glenda Dean, executive director of Alpha House at a news conference Feb. 23 at the Home Depot located at 1999 Bishop Grandin Boulevard.
Alpha House is second stage housing where women who have left an abusive partner can live for up to a year with their children. The organization provides the women with a place to stay and counseling to help them adjust to life on their own.
The Alpha House, which was built in 1969, consists of seven apartments which are old and dated, said Dean.
When the Board of Directors decided to make kitchen renovations a priority, Dean applied online for a $25,000 grant from Home Depot Foundation’s Affordable Housing Grant Program, which she said was quite easy.
“We’re absolutely thrilled in terms of what Home Depot has done for us,” said Dean.
“To every person involved, no matter what level, you all posses a true compassion in your hearts to extend a hand to help other women. That is a precious gift,” a former resident wrote in a testimony read by Board of Director’s president Karen Goodman Wong.
Home Depot manager Pamela Walker was moved nearly to tears.
“I’m an emotional leader. And this touched me,” said Walker.
But Home Depot’s committed goes beyond handing over a cheque. Walker expressed an interest in attending Alpha House’s annual fundraiser dinner next November and becoming a board member of Alpha House herself.
