Paint Your Heart Out Safety Harbor Looking For Volunteers

Paint Your Heart Out Safety Harbor, the local branch of the national neighborhood beautification organization, takes place this Saturday, March 16. 

The event utilizes dozens of volunteers to help paint, repair and restore homes in the community, and according to city volunteer coordinator Donna Mack, more hands are always welcome to join in. 

“We’re doing four houses this year, and we need 20 people per house,” she said. “Right now we have about 50 people officially registered, plus a couple of church groups and students from St. Pete College.”

“But we’ll take as many people as show up.”

Nadine Nickeson, who has been involved with the organization ever since she moved to Safety Harbor and going back to when she lived in Oklahoma, said each community brings its own styles and methods to the project. 

“Every community does it differently. In Safety Harbor the organization takes care of the homes in groups," she said. "What’s special about ours is, because of the talent pool of our board, we were able to add a landscape component to the project.” 

“And thanks to the amount of donations we’ve received, homeowners get to have a say in what color they would like us to paint their home.”

Safety Harbor has participated in Paint Your Heart Out for 23 years, helping to beautify more than 100 homes during that time, according to city records.

There are certain restrictions to the project - homeowners have to qualify to receive the work, and volunteers must be over 14 years of age to participate. 

But the impact the event has on everyone involved is invaluable, according to Nickeson.

“It’s a real community effort - church groups, students, residents all get involved. It makes you feel good to do something nice for your neighbors."

Info: 

• Paint Your Heart Out Safety Harbor takes place on Saturday, March 16 from 7:30 a.m. until noon. 
• Volunteers can sign up ahead of time by contacting Donna Mack at 727-724-1545 x155, or by showing up at First Baptist Church, 525 14^th Ave. S., at 7:30 Saturday morning. 
• If you are interested in making a donation of paint, supplies or money to the effort, please contact Lynne Burghardt at 727-725-7655 for more details.