Hundreds of Volunteers Repair Homes and Build Playground During Building a Healthy Neighborhood

Rebuilding Together Hosts Official National Healthy Homes Pre-Conference Event with Lowe's and Carter's Kids

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rebuilding Together is hosting a special pre-conference event, Building a Healthy Neighborhood, preceding the National Healthy Homes Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation provided a $350,000 grant to Rebuilding Together towards the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative.

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Building a Healthy Neighborhood is Rebuilding Together's event that will showcase the positive effects of a neighborhood that is transformed into a viable, sustainable community and serves as the official pre-event to reflect the power of change in a home.  

Rebuilding Together, working with its local affiliate, Rebuilding Together Metro Denver will repair and revitalize the Denver neighborhood of Barnum. On June 18 and 19 Rebuilding Together's home repairs that focus on the overall health and welfare of the homeowners and community are congruent with the objectives of the National Healthy Homes Conference: safe and healthy living standards in America's neighborhoods.

More than 250 volunteers from Rebuilding Together and National Sponsors: Lowe's, Cricket Wireless, CBRE, Carter Oosterhouse's Carter's Kids, HUD, Wells Fargo, Encana, Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships, HGTV, DIY Network, and Kmart, will revitalize the Barnum community. Volunteers will perform critical improvements to more than 30 homes, distribute educational resources, and focus on comprehensive health advancements. The workscope includes: major home rehabilitations, basic improvements, accessibility modifications, energy efficient upgrades, and community landscaping.

"I am honored to welcome so many volunteers to work with HUD and Rebuilding Together as we launch the national Healthy Homes conference in Denver," said Rick Garcia, HUD's Region Administrator for the Rocky Mountain Region. "We are not only putting our policies into action, but our partnership with Rebuilding Together is transforming the Barnum neighborhood into a more healthy, environmentally safer and sustainable community."

In addition to the home and neighborhood projects, volunteers will also complete a new playground at Lakewood and Gulch Park, today, Friday, June 17. Carter Oosterhouse, celebrity carpenter and host of Carter Can, in association with his foundation Carter's Kids, and the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation will build the new playground, which promotes a healthy and active lifestyle for local youth.

"Rebuilding Together is thrilled to be hosting the National Healthy Homes Conference's official pre-event, as well as be part of this outstanding community of housing and health leaders during the Conference," said Gary A. Officer, president and CEO of Rebuilding Together. "Rebuilding Together's work to preserve affordable homeownership reflects the goals of this Conference, which will seek to address ways in which we can all synergize our efforts to advance the health and welfare of America's communities."

The National Healthy Homes Conference is an event that will bring together leaders from a range of government and nongovernment entities, whose common goal is to create real and sustainable solutions for safe and affordable housing. This incredible cross-section of leadership and organizations is hosted by: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, with the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

About Rebuilding Together

Rebuilding Together is the nation's leading nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods by providing extensive rehabilitation and modification services to those in need at no cost to those served. With the help of everyday citizen volunteers, skilled trades people, the support of local business and major corporate partners, Rebuilding Together affiliates in America's largest cities and smallest towns make life considerably better for thousands of low-income homeowners and the communities in which they live by completing 10,000 projects per year. Rebuilding Together has programs dedicated to, energy efficiency, veteran's housing, aging in place and gulf coast reconstruction. For more information, visit www.RebuildingTogether.org. You can also follow Rebuilding Together on Twitter @rebldgtogthr or become a fan on Facebook at Facebook.com/RebuildingTogether.

About Carter's Kids

Carter's Kids is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating and promoting awareness of fitness and self-esteem for America's youth. The purpose is to increase the activity level of kids by building and developing community parks and playgrounds in their neighborhoods. The kids then have the opportunity to take an active part in building up their community by using, sharing, and caring for these public spaces. www.carteroosterhouse.com

About Lowe's

Lowe's supports the communities it serves through programs that focus on K-12 public education and community improvement projects. The company's signature education grant program, Lowe's Toolbox for Education, has brought more than $5 million in grants to K-12 public schools every year since its inception in 2005. Lowe's Heroes employee volunteers support local community projects and our national nonprofit partners such as Habitat for Humanity International and the American Red Cross. In 2010, Lowe's and the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation together contributed more than $30 million to support communities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  To learn more, visit Lowes.com/socialresponsibility.

SOURCE Rebuilding Together