Heroes in Orange Aprons

Our friends at The Home Depot Dartmouth Crossing continue to impress and inspire us with their dedication to the Orange Door Project and the imaginative ways they keep raising money to create positive opportunities and experiences for young people in Nova Scotia. Today $7,865.21 was deposited into our bank account. In our world, that is a significant donation and it was raised in just 26 days.  The campaign invites customers to support The Home Depot Canada Foundation’s initiative to help prevent and end youth homelessness in Canada by making a $2, $5, or $10 donation at the checkout in-store or online.

We do everything we can to support the in-store fundraising campaign, but the front-line employees in their orange aprons really are the ones who make this happen and we can’t thank them enough.  Every time we show up in store they are promoting the campaign and doing their very best to get customers on board to support HomeBridge. We know they already have enough to do without adding anything extra to their workload and yet they do it without hesitation and with such enthusiasm that it truly is inspiring. 

This latest donation will continue to support therapeutic, life-skill building programs for the young people who live in the HomeBridge Community.  Right now, we are in the middle of our Summer Recreation Program which is supported by this campaign. On the outside this program simply looks like fun outings for the young people, but there is a much deeper level of therapeutic value in every activity.  Our Recreation Therapist works with each young person to develop an individual activity plan that considers their personal strengths and interests as well as the intervention strategies used by the Youth Care Team.  As a result, something like getting a youth involved in rock climbing and bouldering can be a very healing and therapeutic experience.  The young person learns to trust and take risks in a safe and supportive environment.  They get to experience successes and feel the pride of accomplishment as well as conquering fears.  They learn that it’s ok to make mistakes and fall down, as long as you learn, get back up and try again.  And just as importantly, they learn that with hard work and dedication you can learn to do just about anything.  All of this takes place while they are doing a fun and healthy activity and building a positive relationship with our Recreation Therapist, and it wouldn’t be possible without the Orange Door Campaign.  Every Orange Door that is sold opens a door to opportunity for a vulnerable young person who really just needs someone to believe in them.

We have been a charity partner with The Home Depot Foundation Canada since 2014 and we are incredibly grateful for this connection.  They have partnered with 126 organizations across the country, including HomeBridge, in an effort to support programs that work to remove systemic barriers youth face to foster healthy pathways for change. We can attest first hand to the impact their efforts are already making.