Volunteers Swarm NoMi! (pictorial, part 1 of 2)

Guest post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

On a sunny Saturday morning, while resting after a successful annual dinner, the Hawthorne Hawkman received an urgent call on his legally obtained Blackberry. A bunch of people in red shirts had surrounded two houses in the Hawthorne neighborhood. But this was actually a good thing, because…

The volunteers were from the Target Corporation, under their Hearts and Hammers program. Hearts and Hammers does light exterior work such as painting and some landscaping. They focus on seniors and low-income individuals who otherwise might not be able to afford this necessary work.

Last year, they completed 17 projects in St. Paul’s West 7^th neighborhood, and coordinated over 1,200 volunteers. The two houses in Hawthorne had a total of 60-70 volunteers working on them. If you want to see if Hearts and Hammers can help you or someone you know, call 952-922-2451.

Once I was out and about, I checked my trustworthy Blackberry and confirmed that today was also the day that the Pohlad Family Foundation was doing work at the Cottage Park Cluster. I hurried over there to get some photographs of that as well. Orange was the color of the day here.

More pictures to follow...