With hammers, shovels and paintbrushes in hand, 120 ABC Supply Managing Partners and spouses took time during the recent Managing Partners meeting in New Orleans to spruce up a local school.

The team spent a full Saturday completing a host of repairs and improvements at Arise Academy, a public charter school in the Ninth Ward, one of The Big Easy’s poorest neighborhoods and one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The crew worked indoors and outside, building a pergola to create an outdoor classroom area; laying mulch in the playground; installing metal shelving in the classrooms to provide much-needed storage; removing sinks from classrooms to open up additional space; installing more than 200 coat hooks in the hallways to give students places to put their things; repainting trim around classroom doors; painting walls, planters and picnic tables in the playground; and doing some good-old-fashioned spring cleaning.

ABC Supply arranged the volunteer effort through Projects With Purpose LLC (http://www.projectswithpurpose.org), an organization that coordinates and facilitates humanitarian projects for corporations, businesses and organizations meeting in cities around the globe.

In addition to the volunteers’ time, skill and elbow grease, ABC Supply donated all materials needed for the various projects.

“What a great feeling to be able to give back like that,” added Steve Laymon, branch manager and Managing Partner from Rockville, Md. (#233), of the experience that he and his wife had.  “It’s just a good feeling knowing that you made a difference and were able to help those kids.” 

“These are very difficult economic times, but ABC Supply has been successful,” Steve said.  “It is important that, where we can, we help people who have not been as fortunate.”

He added that the experience also inspired him and his wife to seek out community service opportunities back home.

“It humbles you and makes you grateful,” said Reggie Crichton, branch manager and Managing Partner from Kahului, Hawaii (#125).  “We’ve been blessed with certain things and are able to share them with others.  When you can do that, it makes the world go around a lot better.”

“We all would have gone back for another day,” he added.

Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina, the destruction she left is still clearly evident.

“Driving through the Ninth Ward, we got to see the devastation firsthand,” Steve said.  “We were last in New Orleans a few months before Katrina, and that was the city we knew.  None of us had a true picture of the devastation until we saw it for ourselves.”

Reggie and Steve’s only regret was not being able to be at the school on Monday morning when the students arrived.

“If someone would have videotaped the faces of the kids when they came to school on Monday – that would have been worth a million bucks,” Reggie said.  “To see their reactions when they walked in, that’s the kind of moment you live for.”