Ace Hardware really is the helpful place - a group of volunteers recently spent three days on site at BEDS locations helping with a shelter move, cleaning and stocking a shelter and sprucing up the Ogden Avenue Supportive Housing facility.
BEDS would like to thank the Ace Hardware Foundation for organizing employees at the company's Oak Brook corporate headquarters to volunteer their time during their #AceCaresWeek. Catherine Jones, Ace Hardware fundraising and volunteer program manager, said this marked the inaugural Ace Cares Week and more than half of the company's employees got out to volunteer.
Ace Hardware was looking for volunteer opportunities in the communities its stores serve and heard about BEDS through Giving DuPage. In addition to helping out with shelter tasks and cleaning BEDS sites, the Ace volunteers also got a chance to learn about homelessness and the services that BEDS provides to clients.
"What's more helpful than making sure people have a shelter," Jones said. "We think about (homelessness) really being something that is contained downtown but it is absolutely something that is a concern in the suburbs out here."
Volunteerism is a core value for the Ace Foundation, which is the corporate philanthropy arm of Ace Hardware. Over 600 of their employees mobilized across the Chicago area to share their helpful spirit with community members through volunteerism.
“A couple people on my team expressed surprise that something like BEDS existed tucked away in a typical neighborhood," Ace employee Harry Oliver said. "I have no doubt that the participants benefited as much as Beds Plus did, maybe more. Hopefully, participating in an event like this will be the perfect launch-pad to get people to take a more active role in their communities.”
