If Pink Tools Could Talk

As the Donations Coordinator for Gwinnett Habitat for Humanity ReStore, I run across all kinds of items that find their way to our showroom in Lawrenceville. Some are brand new in the box; others show sign of gentle use and appreciation by how well they are cared for. Each donated item in their own right has a story to tell.

This week, we received a large donation of tools that were lightly painted pink. The tools have a lot of life left in them. Still useful, but not in pristine condition. The Gwinnett ReStore staff was curious as to why perfectly good tools were painted pink, so I asked donor Steve Gooch of Ground Zero Grace in Duluth. Steve explained the pink tools were marked so they could be identified.

Over the past three years Ground Zero Grace has taken 280 volunteers serving 4,500 man-hours on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Steve first met Kathleen Johnson, founder of Katrina Relief, in Waveland on his first relief trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the epicenter of Hurricane Katrina.

As a way to mark her tools to identify the ones that belonged to her, Kathleen, a journeyman carpenter from New Zealand, sprayed them pink. After devoting five years to Katrina relief efforts, Kathleen retired and gifted her pink tools to Ground Zero Grace, and they made their way to Duluth. In an effort to reclaim warehouse space, Steve donated the pink tools to Gwinnett ReStore, and they continue to help families in need.

If tools could talk, especially the pink ones Gwinnett ReStore now has for sale, can you imagine the stories they would tell about the work they did to help families recover from Hurricane Katrina, the homes they repaired and rebuilt, the lives they changed?

The pink tools served both Katrina Relief and Ground Zero Grace well and are now serving Gwinnett Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Sale of the pink tools generate proceeds to build homes and hope in our community.   

SHOP  DONATE  VOLUNTEER Gwinnett ReStore www.gwinnettrestore.org 

Ground Zero Grace www.gzgrace.org