Lancaster Painting has donated their time and services to worthy community members for the past seven years as part of their annual Paint It Forward event, and on Saturday, United Cerebral Palsy in Turlock received a colorful makeover thanks to a fresh and free coat of paint.
The painting company’s Paint It Forward event gifts a lucky, local individual, family or nonprofit organization with $5,000 of free painting services, and decides who the recipient will be through community nominations. This year, UCP was nominated and subsequently received the most votes from employees at Lancaster Painting’s company Christmas party in December, earning them the free paint job.
“Without people in the community, we wouldn’t be who we are or doing the things we do, so it’s really an opportunity to give back to those people who give to us all year,” said Jennifer Gonzalez, the customer advocate for Lancaster Painting.
UCP is a day program for adults with disabilities, where attendees come in to work on personal goals and be active in the community, as well as learn skills to help them become more independent in their everyday lives. The nonprofit organization would never have been able to afford a new interior paintjob on their own, said Program Coordinator Chris Selvidge.
“It looks amazing and it brightens up the rooms so much,” said Selvidge. “For a lot of the people sitting in wheelchairs all day, the color will make such a huge difference.”
Selvidge and representatives from Lancaster Painting have been in contact since it was revealed that UCP won the paint job, collaborating on what colors to use in the new makeover. Ultimately, bright blues and greens were chosen, as those are UCP’s colors, along with a vibrant yellow for the building’s game room.
“It’s been a fun process,” said Selvidge. “We wanted to brighten it up in here and it definitely worked.”
A crew of volunteers and employees from both organizations worked from 7:30 a.m. until about 12:30 p.m. to get the job done, and other organizations in the community donated items to help, such as paint, coffee and donuts from Sherwin Williams, painting supplies from Paul’s Paint and drinks from Noah’s Water and 7UP of Modesto.
“We enjoy giving back to the community and that’s part of our culture,” said Rodney Petitt, project manager at Lancaster Painting. “Now, when they show up on Monday they’ve got new colors to look at and a fresh, new facility.”
