Paint Your Heart Out

Have you heard of this?

If not, you are missing out. This is a great opportunity to get involved on a local level.

Provo has a Paint Your Heart Out event coming up this weekend, {but there are programs all over the country that are similar.}

Want to know more?

Me to.

I recently spoke to Kurt Peterson who is helping

to lead the program here in Provo and has done so for years.

Here's how it works:

Paint Your Heart Out is a really great program that basically gathers as many volunteers as they possibly can, gives them paint brushes and paint, and puts them to work painting and revitalizing some of the homes in the community. The emphasis is on revitalizing the community.

The funding comes from multiple sources and sometimes through city development programs, private banks and institutions. They also receive discounts on paint and supplies from local businesses. Zions Bank is stepping up this year to send some of it's employees to work on one of the homes (I think I know which one and I'm very excited for the homeowner!)

Here's how they started:

Provo established a non-profit organization called NeighborWorks Provo that has a board of members from the business community as well as residents and they all work together to make Provo a better place. They are exclusively devoted to neighborhood revitalization. (I love that!)

This year they will be painting 4 homes, three of which are owned by local residents (I even know a few of them!) {The fourth is owned by the NeighborWorks Provo and they are hoping to renovate it and resell it -- once again trying to revitalize some of these historic neighborhoods.}

I can tell Kurt is really committed to this project and feels very passionate about how this helps communities. I love how he put it....

"I love Paint Your Heart Out because of the fast and furious change that it makes. People’s perceptions of their home, and therefore their neighborhood changes. People slow down to see what is going on. We have learned that for every house we paint, another one within about a 1 block radius gets painted. It is sort of like employing the “keep up with the Jones’s factor.” We want the people who live in these neighborhoods to be proud of their historic homes, and to keep them in good shape as long as possible. Getting a big old house painted can cost as much as 10,000 if done by a professional painting contractor. Most of the time, all this costs our homeowners is prep time, and some fine tuning time once we are finished. Its also fun for me to drive by these houses and see the difference it has made."

I love this.

If you want to get involved here in Provo, Saturday is your lucky day!!

They will be gathering this Saturday, June 12th at 8 a.m. at Maeser School (500 East 100 South). Everyone will sign in and be given their really cool t-shirt, be able to get some food, pick which home they want to work on and start painting!!

Children are welcome to come if they are supervised -- it is best if they are over age 6 (they have a lot of scaffolding and ladders and they don't want anyone getting hurt.)

Here it is again:

Saturday, June 12th

8 a.m. until around 1 p.m.

Meet at Maeser school (500 East 100 South)

Go here to their facebook page to see more photos.

You will get a cool t-shirt and something to eat! Woot! Woot!

The best part -- you'll be helping to revitalize a community and you're going to have fun!!!! We have some really great homes here in Provo and we want to keep them great. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for an entire neighborhood.

Not local? 

Check into the Paint Your Heart Out program in your own area.

Get involved.

Approach the city to try and get one started.

{If you need some help or have some questions, I'm certain Kurt would be willing to help you. Just let me know and I'll pass you onto him.}

OR,...you can come anyway. This is not exclusive to Provo residents -- they welcome anyone willing to help.

There is nothing worse than good neighborhoods going bad and there is nothing better than good neighborhoods.