Leadership Chattanooga members help United Way

As part of the Leadership Chattanooga curriculum, members of the 2010-2011 class divided into small groups to undertake community service projects.

Stephanie Deimling, John Jerman, Matt Hodges, Trey Meyer, Ashlee Patten, Meredith Rivers and Alex Santiago adopted the Tool Barn at United Way of Greater Chattanooga's Gifts in Kind warehouse as their project.

According to Kelley Nave, United Way director of public relations, the Tool Barn is a "lending library" of construction, landscaping and other heavy equipment tools, which has been donated by Home Depot for use by area nonprofits.

As part of their service project, the Leadership Chattanooga group will solicit tool donations from other sources, lay out and design the tool barn area, develop a logo and artwork for the facility and market the Tool Barn to nonprofits.

In one recent morning's work of organizing and cleaning up the Tool Barn, group members donated the equivalent of $740 in volunteer labor to Gifts in Kind, said Nave. Their work will continue over several months.