Ace Retailers Provide Meaningful Yard Makeovers

When a local TV station challenged a group of retailers who own Ace Hardware stores in Florida to spend a day of service in their communities, the 12 retailers were thrilled to help.

Owners from the Jacksonville Ace Group jumped in to plan local projects, according to Jacob Hagan of Hagan Ace Hardware in Jacksonville, Florida, which is part of the group.

The retailers partnered with local nonprofit organizations to identify families who could use yard makeovers. Several store owners visited each home and helped the residents come up with lists of necessary supplies for projects volunteers from the stores could complete in a day.

The owners donated their time, the use of equipment, such as pressure washers and weed trimmers, and products, including mulch and flowers. They also paid their staff members to work alongside them to beautify the yards. Forty-five employees from the group’s stores took an entire day to work until the projects were finished.

The five lawn makeovers included projects such as rebuilding raised garden beds, pressure-washing decks and driveways, mulching and planting flowers.

“Our communities are what keep us in business,” Hagan says. “We’re just people helping our neighbors.”