Church, Sears to partner to tidy up homes

Published 10:59 am Friday, July 26, 2013

Vision 2020 volunteers and Cornerstone Church are going to get a boost from Sears and Craftsman.

The Craftsman brand “Make a Difference” tour will come to the Austin Sears store in partnership with Sears Heroes at Home and the non-profit Rebuilding Together for a special community service project and culmination event this Saturday.

“It’s kind of a cool community thing,” said Cory Squier, owner of Austin’s Sears.

Email newsletter signup

Local volunteers with the Community Home Improvement Project and Craftsman Club members — part of Vision 2020 — will help finish renovation projects, completing a porch, restoring windows and landscaping a yard, from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. About 30 volunteers from Cornerstone Church’s Mission 507 are also slated to be on hand.

The volunteers will get a boost Saturday from Craftsman’s 36-foot “Make a Difference” Tour truck, which is filled with the latest Craftsman tools, storage solutions and more.

“That’s a lot more than a normal program would be able to utilize,” Squier said.

Following the community service project, Austin’s Sears store will host a free event from 2 to 5 p.m., inviting participants to get an exclusive look at the Craftsman “Make a Difference” Tour truck.

Squier said a stop by the truck is rare, as it only goes to a handful of locations each year. Earlier this summer, the truck stopped to help areas devastated by a large tornado in Oklahoma.

Though this is Sears’ first joint project with Vision 2020 and CHIP, Squier said this could be the start of a continued partnership.

“We hope to grow with this and do more in the future,” he said.