‘Lasting Impact’: Six-figure Lowe’s grant supports major upgrade to Our Place facilities

A Wilmette-based nonprofit recently got a major accessibility upgrade, with the help of a $100,000 grant from Lowe’s and the hands-on support of 11 employees from the Northbrook Lowe’s store.

Our Place of New Trier is a nonprofit that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and provides day programs for them, including physical education and community programs and activities such as baking, art and sports. 

The primary motivation behind the organization’s pursuit of the grant rests in a large new development: It recently purchased the church, Community Church of Wilmette, 1020 Forest Ave., where its programming is housed. 

There, the team serves a total of 120 participants, hosting 40 to 50 daily, according to Heather Williamson, Our Place of New Trier’s development manager.

But the building had been in need of upgrades, largely to improve accessibility and usable space for participants. 

“This $100,000 [Lowe’s] grant … is going to make a lasting impact for our participants to be able to use the space more comfortably and safely, making sure that we have a safe space as well,” Williamson said.

On Oct. 2 and 3, Lowe’s volunteers and community members, together with Our Place of New Trier staff and board members, got to work to complete some of the renovations. 

Hands-on renovation days like these are known as Red Vest Days, a nod to the red vests that Lowe’s employees sport.

Work done included renovating a new art room; adding new flooring, cabinetry and baseboards; resurfacing the exterior walkways; and painting exterior trims where new, accessible sliding doors are scheduled for installation.

Now, thanks to these efforts, most of the work is done. The remaining renovations are set to be complete by mid-November. 

Williamson shared some of those pending improvements with The Record.

“The front door is really a big one because we are housed in a former church, so a lot of the doors — most of the doors — are not accessible, and we have many participants here who have varied accessibility needs, so the front door is really going to be a key accessibility improvement for us,” she said. “The other thing that [will also be] installed [is] automatic openers on some of the bathrooms to help participants who have trouble opening some of the current doors to the bathrooms.”

While Williamson said the grant had originally been a “long shot” for the organization, it’s clear the grant was not so out of reach after all, particularly with Lowe’s emphasis on community.

This year, Lowe’s centered its commitment to deliver 10 million square feet of impact on communities nationwide, with store managers spearheading the volunteer work on the ground.

Lowe’s Hometowns is the company’s five-year, $100-million initiative created to support and fulfill 100 large-scale grants per year, plus 1,700 smaller, store-selected projects.

The next grant cycle is set to open on Jan. 21, according to Laurel Waller, Lowe’s external communications manager.

With the help of their grant, Our Place of New Trier can look to the future and continue to tap into its building’s potential.

“There’s a lot of further plans with the building to come,” Williamson said. “Prior to purchasing the building, we only really used the bottom floor and the top floor for programs, [but] we’re now able to use the whole building, so that’s really exciting for us and opens up a lot of opportunities to improve and enhance the programs that we already have and to expand our programming to better serve the needs of our participants.”

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