Our team at ToolBank USA looks forward to keeping all of our ToolBankers up-to-date with what is happening across our network. As this year comes to an end, we reflect on all of the wonderful things that we’ve accomplished as a network. These accomplishments would not be possible without the generous donations from you, our supporters. Please consider donating to the ToolBank during our End of the Year campaign and thank you for reading our monthly newsletter!
ToolBank USA National Awards – RECAP
ToolBank USA held its annual National Awards on Thursday, November 17 at the Cincinnati ToolBank. The National Awards program recognizes ToolBank affiliates, board members, sponsors, volunteers, and supporters who help the network thrive and fulfill its mission. Staff from ToolBank USA and the Cincinnati ToolBank along with local radio personality, Amanda Orlando from Warm 98.5, hosted an in-person event along with a live broadcast of the program to the eight ToolBanks across the US. Watch parties were hosted at a number of the affiliates’ locations, and during the program they were remoted into to recognize winners that were not able to the join in-person event.
Stanley Black & Decker features ToolBank as their Charity of Choice for the NYSE Global Giving Campaign during the Holiday Season
ToolBank USA is honored to be a part of this year’s New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Global Giving campaign thanks to our corporate partners at Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK). The NYSE hosted its 99th Annual Tree Lighting on Wednesday, November 30th. The Global Giving campaign enables NYSE-listed companies to share their efforts by helping those in need and raising awareness for the many important organizations they support throughout the year. Over 200 companies participated this year and were recognized with a commemorative custom ornaments that will hang on the NYSE tree this holiday season. Stanley Black & Decker will have their ornament feature ToolBank USA.
Scroll down to the NYSE-Listed Company Charitable Highlights section and select the letter “S” to read more about Stanley Black & Decker’s partnership with ToolBank USA.
ToolBank Disaster Services (TDS) – RECAP
Recent deployments have included response to both Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian, the Caldor Fire, and our team continues long-term recovery efforts in New Orleans from Hurricane Ida. For a more detailed overview of the trailers, tools, and disaster relief partners we’ve been working with, we encourage you to click the Read More link below.
Our TDS team has been responding to multiple disasters over the past few months across the US. These deployments are made possible by the generous support from our partners: The Ford Motor Company Fund, Volunteer Florida, The Home Depot Foundation, Lowe’s, UPS, Stanley Black & Decker, and First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin.
Check out what’s going on at each of our ToolBanks across the nation. Scroll down to each affiliate and expand the text block to read more about your favorite ToolBank team. All of our affiliates are doing amazing work and we can’t wait to share their updates with you monthly.
Make sure and scroll through the images to the right of our affiliate updates. Most of the updates come with a couple of images related to their article.
Atlanta ToolBank Update:
The Atlanta ToolBank hosted its annual Hammers & Ales in early October. The music was jammin’! The food was awesome! The vibe was amazing! But most importantly, the Atlanta ToolBank team shared a great evening with friends, corporate partners and member agencies. They celebrated this year’s accomplishments, starting with Mayor Dicken’s Inaugural Day of Service in January through Arthur Blank Family Foundation’s Eight Days of Service with Hands On Atlanta. The ToolBank team also honored the following individuals, corporations, and member agencies for their steadfast commitment to the ToolBank and the Atlanta charitable community. Cheryl Naja from Alston & Bird was named ToolBanker of the Year. Inspire Foundation was awarded Corporate Partner of the Year. Jennifer Behm from The Home Depot was named Volunteer of the Year and HandsOn Atlanta was honored as the Jeff Woodward Legacy Builder award recipient.
After the dust settled from Hammers & Ales, the Atlanta ToolBank hosted their ToolRush sale in early November. Patrons could find thousands of new and gently-used tools, equipment, and accessories along with gardening and landscaping supplies. Everything in the Sale is 50% off retail value or more! The photos from their ToolRush shop do not disappoint…check them out to the right.
Baltimore ToolBank Update:
The Baltimore ToolBank has been busy with volunteers, Hammers & Ales, and their Executive Director, Noah Smock, was featured on the podcast, The Truth In This Art. Noah was interviewed by Rob and they discussed all of the wonderful things the Baltimore ToolBank is doing in the community along with Baltimore’s vibrant culture and people. Listen to Noah and Rob’s podcast here.
The fun continued at Baltimore’s annual Hammers & Ales. They were joined by a local marching band to kick off the festivities and had guests enter their warehouse through a ToolBank Disaster Services trailer. This gave attendees an insider view of how we deploy trailers of tools after a disaster strikes.
Finally, the Baltimore ToolBank team welcomed Jill Gordon to their team. Jill comes to the ToolBank from AmeriCorps through Volunteer Maryland. She will be serving as the volunteer coordinator that will organize the hundreds of volunteers that help the Baltimore ToolBank do such wonderful work in the community. Welcome to the ToolBank Team, Jill!
Charlotte ToolBank Update:
The Charlotte ToolBank have had some pretty cool guests stop by their warehouse. Their team helped roll out some new inventory items with the help of WCNC Charlotte’s Larry Sprinkle and Pierre Simmons.
Representatives from the ToolBank also attended Share Fest that is organized by SHARE Charlotte. The ToolBank team gave away $1,650 in waved tool handling fees to Hospitality House of Charlotte for them to use on future volunteer projects.
Along with all of the special guests and events, the ToolBank continues to host a ton of volunteer groups at their warehouse. Some of which includes volunteers from: Patterson Pope, Atlas Insurance, Duke Energy, Bank of America, TrueBlue, Hilti, and CMS Performance Learning Center…to name a few.
Cincinnati ToolBank Update:
The Cincinnati ToolBank hosted their annual Hammers & Ales celebration in October at the gorgeous Elevar Design group. Executive Director, Kat Pepmeyer, and WARM 98.5 Morning Radio Host, Amanda Orlando, emceed the event where they crowned a new Brewers Philanthropy winner. This year the Cincinnati ToolBank honored Narrow Path Brewing from Loveland, OH. Narrow Path believes in supporting nonprofit organizations who are doing amazing work to help make the world a better place. A significant portion of every dollar they earn is shared with nonprofits both locally and globally.
After their big ToolBank of the Year award win, the Cincinnati ToolBank was featured in Movers & Makers. Check out their article at: https://moversmakers.org/2022/11/22/local-tool-bank-named-best-in-nation/.
Houston ToolBank Update:
The Houston area got a pretty cool addition recently to help people donate to local and global charities. Light the World Giving Machines placed 2 machines in the Houston area and the Houston ToolBank was chosen as one of their four local charities that donations will support. The Giving Machine is as easy to use as buying a candy bar from a vending machine, but instead, customers can purchase a claw hammer, painting kit, desks for students, portable table saw, or generator to help the Houston ToolBank! This is such a cool idea and hopefully we’ll see more Giving Machines in cities where our other ToolBanks reside.
The Houston ToolBank continues to host a number of state representatives and most recently were visited by State Representative Mary Ann Perez. She came by the Houston warehouse for a tour and to learn more about their tool lending program. We love seeing pictures from all of your special guests in Houston and hope to see more during the holiday season and into the New Year!
Phoenix ToolBank Update:
The Phoenix ToolBank hosted over 60 amazing Home Depot volunteers to help them literally count EVERYTHING in the warehouse, yes everything! These dedicated team members sped through the warehouse and was able to count everything two hours. Help with inventory is vital for any ToolBank to understand how many assets they have on hand and to keep their warehouse in tip top shape for their busy seasons.
Phoenix also hosted their 8th Annual Hammers & Ales in November. Stanley Black and Decker brought their official NASCAR racecar to the event for patrons to take pictures with and The Home Depot brought over some of their heavy equipment for our guest to experience. Pretty awesome to be able to get a picture of the event from on top of a scissor lift! Wizard of Za joined the festivities and educated the guests about the Huss Brewing Company beer while Other Side Ministries and The Grateful Shark helped provide the amazing food.
Richmond ToolBank
The Richmond ToolBank helped their local community celebrate Arbor Day in a big way! This was the 3rd annual citywide tree celebration for Arbor Day. Since 2020, the Richmond ToolBank has helped plant and give away more than 10,000 trees. This year, they celebrated Arbor Day RVA by planting and giving away 1,000 trees at five locations from October 12th – 23rd. This event was in collaboration with Reforest Richmond and corporate sponsor, Colonial Floors of VA. Reforest Richmond is a collaborative campaign to increase Richmond’s urban tree canopy to 60% by 2037 as outlined in the Richmond 300 Master Plan. They are committed, not only to increasing citywide tree canopy, but also to dismantling systemic racism and environmental injustice through an evolving, equity-centered, community-driven effort.
For more information about Arbor Day RVA and to hear Richmond ToolBank’s Executive Director, Toby Vernon’s podcast, visit: https://www.richmondtoolbank.org/arbor-day.
Windy City ToolBank
After moving into their new warehouse in July, the Windy City ToolBank hit the ground running! The ToolBank equipped over 400 volunteers from The Mission Continues during their Operation Chi-Town Salute. This massive volunteer event lasted 4 days and the group completed 60 projects with Windy City ToolBank tools. The momentum didn’t stop there.
The Windy City ToolBank has been hosting a number of volunteer groups. First was a group in September from our friends at Grainger. Their group built picnic tables for Little City and were assisted by ToolBank USA’s CPO, Trey Bearden. Jim Flory and Windy City also hosted volunteers from The Mission Continues in November. This group helped Jim prepare his tools for lending by painting them blue and adding our ToolBank logos.
Consider helping the Windy City ToolBank FILL THE RACKS in Chicago by donating to their campaign at: https://givebutter.com/FilltheRacks.
