Dear Timberland,

It seems only fitting that your donation of steel toed boots would arrive to our warehouse during this holiday season. As we were unpacking the boxes of boots the resounding response from our staff and AmeriCorps was “it’s like Christmas!”

Thirty-five pairs of boots are now on the ground here in New Orleans and hard at work helping to rebuild and repair homes for low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners in our city. Of these 35, 18 pairs of your boots now belong to our house captains; AmeriCorps members just beginning to learn the ins and outs of being on a construction site. In an average week these service members could be found on a framing crew,crawling through an attic installing insulation, laying flooring, or leading groups of volunteers on a myriad of tasks.

In another branch of our organization, six pairs were given to the staff and AmeriCorps members on our deconstruction team; individuals who work in blighted homes filled with rusty nails salvaging historic building materials and deconstructing buildings to reuse the valuable lumber that would otherwise end up in our ever growing landfills. Five more pairs are keeping our construction managers safe as they inspect homes which may enter our program, walk through gutted houses planning out kitchen cabinet lay outs, or manage the construction progress on one of our 62 open projects.

As our organization takes on larger work scopes, we have found the need to bring on more experienced carpenters. Four pairs of your boots have been given to our handymen and women who lead our framing, trim and weatherization crews, and ensure that our homeowners have safe and energy efficient homes. Without our warehouse operations keeping all of projects stocked with bamboo flooring, tile, weatherization materials, tools and lumber we would be at a stand still; two pairs of your boots are making sure that the women who manage our warehouse are safe on and off the forklift or while throwing sparks from a welding torch.

Though your team at Timberland may never get to walk through the homes we repair or meet the homeowners we serve, we hope that you are able to get a glimpse of the impact that your gift allows our team to make.

From 350 well protected toes in New Orleans many thanks to you, Timberland!