Author: Houston ToolBank

Houston’s first annual Volunteer Appreciation Fair was held on October 5, 2019. This fair was not only a way to say thanks to the volunteers that have dedicated their time to the community, but also to reward them for their commitment to uplifting those in need during hard times.The fair celebrated people who have given their time; doing everything from mucking and gutting houses with Houston or Katy responds, or signing up for Volunteer Houston to make themselves available to projects that are aligned with their interests and talents.This fair was the spark of an initiative to give volunteers recognition for their efforts. They are needed and are valuable pillars of strength and stability; especially in the non profit community.Each nonprofit or volunteer agency was asked to choose a volunteer…

 The Houston ToolBank and Kaboom! have been partners since the ToolBank opened in 2014. This long time collaboration has been a mutual relationship between the non-profits for the benefit of children in the community. KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all kids, particularly those growing up in poverty in America. KaBOOM! often provides grants and equipment to schools for new play equipment, as well as helping to organize projects across the country. Rebuild Texas *(another ToolBank partner) sponsored the Bay Colony Elementary, KAboom! Build. It was a two-week effort to tear down the old playground, and afterward it took 3 days to prepare the area for the volunteers.  The build day consisted of over 80 volunteers, all of whom had different…

Although this member agency is a recent addition to our ToolBank family, it has been a staple in the Houston community since 2014. Second Servings of Houston strives to alleviate hunger and reduce waste by rescuing excess prepared and perishable food from hotels, caterers, sports venues, distributors, retailers, and other regulated food businesses, and delivering it promptly and safely to approved charitable meal sites. A ToolBank representative was not able to visit the Texas Restaurant Association Marketplace trade show that occurred on July 14th and 15th. Barbabra Bronstein, the president and founder of second servings, was kind enough to have an email correspondence with us. "Thanks to the ToolBank equipment rental, we were able to efficiently rescue a huge amount of incredible food for people in need, including adults in…

The Houston ToolBank was selected to receive a small grant from the Positive Payload program, which has donated over $20,000 to nonprofits across the USA since 2017. The program gives to organizations that use trucks to support their day-to-day operations, and we are fortunate to have access to a truck donated by Ford to ToolBank Disaster Services following Hurricane Harvey. This truck has allowed us to make some very important deliveries of tools and donations to nonprofits doing great work across the state, and will always be an asset to TDS. Thanks to Positive Payload and Ford for the ongoing support! To Learn more about Positive Payload, click here.

College Memorial Park Cemetery is one of three remaining African-American cemeteries established in Houston in the era of racial segregation.  It is located at 3605 West Dallas at Dunlavy in the historic Fourth Ward, on Lot 3, Block 48 of the O. Smith Survey in Harris County, Texas. Four thousand, four hundred graves, many of them unmarked or unidentifiable, occupy 5.2 acres.  They regularly have volunteer opportunities to preserve the cemetery and maintain its sanctity with careful attention to its history.The second Saturday of every month from 8am to noon, community volunteers are working to clean up our historic cemetery. All skill levels of work are available from chain saws to mowers to simply picking up trash. They are working from 8 am to noon, any amount of time you…

https://vimeo.com/332741995 "A Woman decided to brave the storm and stay in her house during the flooding. She ended up getting sick because of all the mold that was affecting her home. She is still keeping her faith in that her home will be restored to its original condition."   I still believe there is  a lot of people that need help; they need people to help them. One family at a time.    "With the decline in media coverage of Hurricane Harvey’s aftermath, it’s easy to drive around Houston and surrounding cities and think things are "back to normal." For tens of thousands of families, this couldn’t be further from the truth. These families are still displaced or living in unrepaired homes. The number of volunteers engaging in the recovery…

We would like to give a special shout out to Jose aka 'Punch'.  He goes above and beyond to make sure we have what we need,plus he's just a nice guy! Hurricane Harvey Made landfall on August 17, 2017 and dissipated on September 2, 2017 inflicting over 125 billion Dollars in damage displacing over 30,000 people. Although it has almost been two years since Harvey has made landfall, many people are still suffering from the damage left in the storm’s wake.  ToolBank is still offering free tool lendings for disaster work, and there are many Harvey-related community engagement projects for those who are recovering from the Hurricane; the Harvey resource fair was one.  Mardi Ward and her husband Jim Ward are with the Northeast Houston Restoration Mission centers of Houston. They…

When Gustavia Pearls Women’s Outreach held a STEM festival with over 400 attendants and vendors, the ToolBank was happy to provide some tables and chairs for the event. The festival included free food (hot dogs and icees), games and giveaways. One of the vendors present was ToolBank member agency TXRX Labs with their 3D printed creations and also some special guests such as the ghostbusters.  This festival was a perfect example of Gustavia’s mission to inspire individual advancement in women & young girls. Although young women in STEM were the focal point of this festival, all people who wanted to participate and support were welcome. There were many different activities and games available to try, from programming robots, to flying a drone, to driving a remote control system. Vendors came ready…

Memorial Hermann Greater Heights has partnered with Yvette Leno to support a community garden in Independence Heights. Beauty’s Community Garden is named after Yvette’s Grandmother, Beauty Leno,  who started the garden in December of 2012. This community garden is a fertile ground for not only the fruits and vegetables that are grown there, but also for the community that it supports.  The ToolBank tools were borrowed by The Missions Continues Mallory Valle for a project with the Houston 2nd Platoon. Some of the tools included shovels, gloves, weed eaters, and iron rakes. All together 19 volunteers from CarMax, The Mission Continues, and The Americorps VISTA program were present.  The project was a 4 hour endeavor to tend to the garden. We repainted the shipping container that held the tools for the…

https://vimeo.com/323778758"A family is still displaced from their home from the aftermath of Harvey. Their  gratitude is  a nod to the volunteers who put their time and effort into helping rebuild the community."“It’s  a struggle between trying to survive [and] trying to make ends meet…”"With the decline in media coverage of Hurricane Harvey’s aftermath, it’s easy to drive around Houston and surrounding cities and think things are 'back to normal.' For tens of thousands of families, this couldn’t be further from the truth. These families are still displaced or living in unrepaired homes. The number of volunteers engaging in the recovery effort has also dwindled, slowing down the rate at which families can be helped.Houston Responds, and its partner coalitions have launched the 'Far From Finished' campaign to raise awareness of…