Nothing beats a fresh coat of paint to instantly refresh a room. Thanks to Home Depot and the hard work of volunteers, the Youth Center looks youthful and fresh.

Stephanie Stone at Directorate of Family and Morale Welfare and Recreation got the call from Home Depot. Their service crew, Team Depot, was looking for a community project to do and they really wanted to make it happen on Redstone.

"Linda Ares from Team Depot came to me and asked if FMWR had any community projects they could do at no cost to us," Stone said "I put the word out to let everyone know we had this great offer. We got a lot of ideas from all the activities."

The Youth Center was ultimately chosen. Even though new furniture and equipment had been bought for the facility, the old paint made it feel dated, Stone said.

It was settled. Team Depot from South Memorial Parkway Store 888 would furnish the materials, supplies and their crew. Scott Shuffler, facility director, got on the phone, rounding up some volunteers to help the job go faster. The NCO Academy pledged their help on project day and Fox Army Health Center would help with the preparations.

"They came over to help with spackling and the real grunt work during the week before," Shuffler said. "Thanks to them we were ready to go."

At 7 a.m. Aug. 29, approximately 40 volunteers from Redstone and Team Depot converged on the Youth Center to make the plans a reality. Within two hours, all of the furniture had been moved and the walls taped off. Then the real fun began -- painting. With so many brushes at work, the project went quickly.

By the time free pizza arrived from Papa Johns for lunch, they were down to touchup work and a second coat where needed. In fact, the volunteers had time to put together some of the new furniture that was awaiting assembly. They also helped clean out other items that were being temporarily stored in other rooms.

"They had time to clean out our art room," Shuffler said. "The volunteers are in there putting together new things for the homework lab. They have just been great."

At the end of the day, the tape came off and the furniture was returned. The Youth Center now had a fresh look at no cost. It's almost like having a whole new facility.

"The new color scheme is just so much more mature," Shuffler said. "The pink and blue is gone. Now we have khaki, gray and red. It's much warmer. It looks like a brand new place. We're so grateful to Team Depot and the Arsenal people who stepped up to make this happen."