A
SSOCIATED
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EWSPAPERS OF
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ICHIGAN
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AGE
5
June 25, 2015
B
ELLEVILLE
- R
OMULUS
Safe At Home
Volunteers help senior couple
Arts council celebrates success at ‘Summer Soiree’
Romulus Public Library offers teen reading programs
A veteran of World War II and his wife
received some special help from Home
Depot and the Senior Alliance thismonth.
A new partnership between The
Senior Alliance and the Safe-at-Home
partner Home Depot brought nearly 50
volunteers to a Van Buren Township
home, along with equipment, tools and
supplies to provide much-needed renova-
tions. The 18 volunteers from The Senior
Alliance worked alongside more than 30
volunteers from Home Depot stores in
Plymouth, Ann Arbor, Commerce, Fenton,
Livonia and two Canton locations. The
group began the remodel and home
repair promptly at 9 a.m. and throughout
the day, the volunteers landscaped, built a
new patio, replaced toilet and shower
facilities tomake themcompliant with the
Americans With Disability Act, installed
all new appliances including a refrigera-
tor, stove, washer and dryer and a newhot
water tank. The volunteers also replaced
the front and side storm doors and built
newrailings at the home.
Safe-at-Home is a new program being
developed by The Senior Alliance in an
effort to improve the quality of life for
older adults and individuals with disabili-
ties by focusing on the remediation of
unsound or hazardous conditions in their
homes.
The Home Depot Foundation and
Team Depot have partnered with non-
profits across the country to help trans-
form homes and housing facilities for vet-
erans and their families. Home Depot
employs 35,000 veterans across the coun-
try.
According to a spokesperson, one of
the core values of Home Depot is giving
back to the communities and store associ-
ates participate by volunteering to spend
their time off onTeamDepot projects.
The Home Depot core values echo the
mission statement of The Senior Alliance,
he said.
Among those many volunteers who
made the project in Van Buren possible
were Regional Community Team Caption
Bob Saniga, Team Depot Captain and
PlymouthStoreManager BrianFitzgerald
and Home Depot District Manager Jeff
Watson.
The Belleville Area Council
for the Arts (BACA) welcomed
the summer season recently with
the 3rd Annual Summer Soiree
benefiting the Music Lakeside
summer concert series.
This year, the event was
moved to the BYC Clubhouse
and included a Caribbean theme.
With the support of community
stakeholders such as Belleville
Mayor Kerreen Conley, Wayne
County Commissioner Al
Haidous and 34th District Judge
David Parrot, guests enjoyed a
myriad of live and silent auction
items, dinner and livemusic.
Arts Council President Doug
Dalton and Music Lakeside
Chairperson Ken Voigt said they
were excited about the outpour-
ing of community support for the
event and for the organization as
awhole.
"Arts are vital to a civilized
society," said Dalton, "and we are
ecstatic with the community sup-
port for BACA and the Music
Lakeside series as well as all of
our other events and programs.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude
and thanks to all the folks who
support BACA's efforts".
On hand to emcee the auction
portion of the event was Steve
Gross who accepted bids on
items such as Detroit Tigers tick-
et packages, jewelry, limited edi-
tion art pieces and the highly
sought-after Music Lakeside
Basket. This one of a kind prize
included (amongst other offer-
ings) special VIP parking for the
entire 2015 Music Lakeside
series as well as the privilege of
being the "Official 2015 Music
Lakeside Guest of Honor." That
designation allowed the winners,
Lawrence and Rebecca Gallo, a
ride in the Music Lakeside con-
vertible during the 2015
StrawberryFestival Parade.
The Music Lakeside Summer
concert series will begin in
Horizon Park at 7 p.m. June 25
continue each Thursday evening
through Aug. 27. There will be no
concert Aug. 20, as the Taste of
Belleville is scheduled that
evening.
The Romulus Public Library
will feature the Unmask: Teen
ReadingPrograms this summer.
All programs take place at 2
p.m. on Tuesday, unless other-
wise noted.
On June 30, the program will
be Ring of Steel with
sword/stunt fighting with the
group of professionals who train
the actors in the movies. They
will bring more than 100 movie
props to display.
July 7 will be the Superhero
Movie/Pizza Party. The movie
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will
be shown. Parental permission
for those 12 is necessary for the
PG-13movie.
Participants can design their
own superhero puppet on July
14 with Alex Thomas and
Friends. The puppets will be
used for stop animation and par-
ticipants will receive a DVD of
their animation effort.
July 21 will feature the histo-
ry and making of a comic book
with free giveaways.
The July 28 meeting has been
moved to 2:30 p.m. and will be a
Duct-tape Workshop when teens
can use their imagination to
make all kinds of creations from
duct tape. Special prizes will be
raffled off during this program.
The pool party is planned for
noon until 2 p.m. Aug. 2 at the
RAC. Participants must have a
signed parental waiver to
attend.
The library is located at 11121
WayneRoad inRomulus.
For more information, call
(734) 942-7589.
Nearly 50 volunteers from Home Depot and The Senior Alliance worked to renovate
and repair the home of a World War II veteran in Van Buren Township early this month.
The Plymouth Home Depot was the host store for the project.
Photo by David Wilson
