The Hammond Outdoor Pool is getting a facelift thanks to the volunteer efforts of a local business and a neighbourhood group.
Cindy Johnson-McCormick is a member of the Hammond Neighbours community group and approached Ron Conway at the Dulux Paint store in Maple Ridge hoping he might be able to donate a few gallons of paint to help spruce up the pool.
Instead, Conway and his fellow employees donated more than $1,500 of paint and volunteered to do the work themselves.
“They are a new company in our neighborhood so I thought it would be a good idea to approach them,” said Johnson-McCormick. “We asked for so little, but they gave so much.”
In all, 10 workers from the Maple Ridge store, as well as other Lower Mainland locations have offered their time to paint the aging structure.
In addition to painting the pool building itself, volunteers have also painted the pool’s rusting chain link fence.
The pool building will also be sporting a new mural, the design for which was chosen with a kids coloring contest this summer.
“It’s going to look spectacular when it’s all done,” said Johnson-McCormick.
Conway manages the Maple Ridge paint store, which opened 16 months ago, and said he was happy to help out.
The store has previously donated paint and volunteer hours to the Cythera Transition House Society, and to a local elementary school to add some color to their special needs classroom.
Colleen Conway is the regional operations manager for Dulux, and said the company tries to help out whenever and where ever it can.
“We have the opportunity to make a big visual difference in our communities… so it’s something we try to do right across Canada,” she said. “We try to be good corporate citizens, and it’s just the right thing to do.”
With the Port Hammond neighborhood celebrating its 130th birthday next year, Johnson-McCormick said residents there are working hard to put a shine on the neighborhood, and a freshly painted pool will certainly help.
“We really lucky here, because people care,” she said.
