We loan out more work gloves each year than any other tool. They keep volunteers safer and cleaner, and they only cost roughly $0.10 a pair per week. We pride ourselves on being as versatile as your projects by offering three different work glove options: rubber, leather, and cloth. Each type of glove serves a different purpose. 

But not everyone checks them out for the appropriate jobs.

Crusty is a pleasant way to describe French bread, but it is definitely not how we want to describe our gloves, and we have a number of leather and cloth gloves that fit that adjective all too well. They are stiff and caked with mud, and it’s because they were checked out in place of a better option for the job: rubber gloves. This is the most common misuse of our work gloves, and it causes them to lose their utility – gloves covered in mud turn hard and inflexible, which makes it really hard to do anything while wearing them. Sometimes we can wash them, but oftentimes we end up having to throw them out. And that makes us sad.

Before you place your order, make sure you’re making the right selection when it comes to your gloves. We want to keep your hands safe, and we also want to make sure those gloves can continue to keep you and others safe into the future. Let’s use them properly and keep them around for a while longer!

Women work hard. We know that here at the ToolBank. In fact, did you know that our entire staff is comprised of women? It’s true! And we want to spend some time appreciating other women who have been leading our community.

On Thursday, March 8, in solidarity with International Women’s Day, the ToolBank is hosting a free open warehouse for the ladies of Atlanta, complete with food, wine and games! The festivities begin at 5:30 with a hard hat tour at 6:15, and at 6:30 we’ll hold a brief information session on how you can support your community through the ToolBank. Can’t make it to the whole event? That’s okay! Feel free to drop in when you can. We’d love to see you there!

Yes, we girls do a lot of hard work. But as the wise Cyndi Lauper says, we also just want to have fun. So take a break, come on out to our warehouse, be appreciated, and have fun!

Email Gina Chaves (gina.chaves@toolbank.org) to RSVP!

Infrared thermometers!

The new kid on the block

We’ve had a few of these sitting in our office prior to processing them for inventory, and their presence has already begun generating some excitement. “But why would I need an infrared thermometer?” you ask. They can actually be quite useful. These little mechanisms provide important data for performing energy audits, along with other mechanical and electrical work. In doing so, they can help to conserve resources and prevent serious future problems.

Our thermometers measure in both Fahrenheit and Celsius and give readings with an accuracy of plus or minus 3˚F. It’s important, by the way, considering that these new tools use lasers, that their users take the proper precautions.

So give these new additions a warm welcome to the ToolBank inventory! Add a brand-new infrared thermometer to your order. Look for them under “Safety” in LFNt.

If you are a member agency, follow this link to the LFNt login page to place an order.
If you would like to become a member agency, go here.

Plant seeds of knowledge, and good things will grow. That’s what EcoAddendum’s Birds, Butterflies, and Bees Program proved on November 9^th when it partnered with the Decatur High School Beekeepers Club to plant the program’s largest garden yet! The project took quite a lot of preparatory work. The students learned about native plants, measured their space, and designed the layout of the plants for their garden. They raised over $1500 through multiple fundraisers and received two grants. After all of this hard work and four days of getting the space ready to plant (thanks to the help of forty volunteers), EcoAddendum and the Beekeepers Club were ready to dig in.

Twenty volunteers equipped with blue ToolBank tools cultivated 3,000 square feet in just one afternoon! Shovels, hand trowels, rakes, tarps, and gloves all proved handy, but the real MVP tool of the day was the tiller, which finished off the job beautifully. Now this busy Decatur street corner is all set to blossom come spring with 240 native perennials, shrubs, and one dogwood tree.

According to Lauren Sandoval, manager of the Birds, Butterflies, and Bees Program, “The first hour or so of our first work day we usually spend pulling up weeds by hand, but the students always light up when I start handing out the shovels with their bright blue handles.  It’s like they have graduated to big-time gardeners.”  We are proud to partner with EcoAddendum in their outreach to the community and are glad that we can contribute to the growing environmental knowledge that they nurture. Thank you, EcoAddendum, for putting our tools to such great use!

To learn more about EcoAddendum, click here.
To learn more about EcoAddendum’s Birds, Butterflies, and Bees Program, click here.

An empty storage rack in our warehouse waiting for its residents to return home...

Do you see a tool? Neither do I. What you are seeing is the unreturned tool, the late tool. You are seeing the tool that an agency wants to check out to take onto a worksite but can’t because another agency is holding it hostage. This isn’t good for anyone. Not only are we not able to loan out the tool to other member agencies that may need it, but it’s also not good for the overdue agency because they’ll accrue late fees, which is 6% of the retail value of the tools per week (twice the amount of a week-long checkout’s tool handling fees).

Here are a couple tips to avoid the poor, sad, empty space created by an unreturned tool:

1. Know when your tools are due, and schedule your return appointment accordingly. You can even set your return appointment at pickup! (NOTE: Please do not show up to pick up or return without a scheduled appointment!) If you find that you will need the tools longer than expected, call before your tools are due to set up an extension. Additional tool handling fees will apply, but they will be less than late fees!

2.  Know what you checked out. At every pickup, we will give you an inventory list of your order. It is a good idea to check the tools you’ve gathered at the end of your project against this list to make sure you have everything. There’s nothing so disappointing as thinking you have returned everything on the due date and finding that there are still outstanding items – and that they’ll accrue late fees.

Our tools have a curfew. Please don’t keep them out late!

Today is an incredible day. On this day in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born right here in Atlanta. Eighty-three years later, the country is honoring his tremendous life and work by giving back to their communities.

Some are planting community gardens. Others are embarking on neighborhood cleanups. Still others are doing home repairs. But all are responding to Dr. King’s call to be active in the life of the community to make it a better, fairer, and more just place.

At the ToolBank, we have the distinct privilege of equipping many of these projects. A total of 21 agencies have picked up tool orders that have, cumulatively, amounted to over $39,000 in retail value. Through the willing hands and hard work of over 4,000 volunteers, blue tools are joining in the celebration of a life well-lived and the ongoing effort to make his great dream a reality.

We ourselves have hosted a great volunteer group that helped us inventory our tools for more effective tool lending. We are grateful for their engagement and are happy we could be part of the spirit of service that characterizes this day.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., day, everyone!

Winner of the Most Popular Tool of MLK Day Award: the Leaf Rake!

1) Follow us! That little “widget” on the right-hand side of the page is a one-click opportunity to make reading this blog easier. You will receive an email anytime a new post is made, so you don’t have to keep checking back to see if something new has happened (unless you want to).

2) If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the blog, including any suggestions for how to improve it or ideas for post topics, please email me at emily.peterson@toolbank.org. We want to make this little corner of the cyberworld a place that you enjoy visiting and where you have a good experience learning more about our organization.

3) Comment! Nobody has done this yet, and to be fair, we didn’t make a point of inviting anyone to do it… which is why we’re extending that invitation now. Yes, it is possible to comment on this blog, and we’d love it if you did. A WordPress account is required for commenting, but if you feel so inclined to join, we invite you to sign up and put in your two cents! This is a way for us to hear from you and for all of you readers to connect with each other.

Happy New Year! We can’t wait to hear from you.

Welcome to 2012 – a year full of possibilities for doing good things. Last year, our rubber boots came into their own, rising from obscurity to become an increasingly popular request among our member agencies. Thus we have dubbed 2011 The Year of the Rubber Boots in the ToolBank Zodiac. And we are, with great hope, calling 2012 The Year of the Floor Squeegee.

Shirley and CJ like floor squeegees, and so should you!

Okay, maybe not, but we do want to call this little helper to your attention because obviously 2011 was not his year. There are 57 floor squeegees in inventory. Of those, only 6 went out during all twelve months of 2011, and all six of them went onto the same project site. Talk about underutilized. Even if they aren’t essential to completing the meat and potatoes of the work that you are looking to do, consider including them as part of the cleanup crew for the project site when you’re done. They do a great job of cleaning cement and other smooth floor surfaces. And how much fun is it to say their name?!

So the next time you have work to be done, think about adding a floor squeegee or two to your order. Redeem them from their year of forgottenness! And as they get a fresh start with the new year, they can help you make a fresh start for someone else through your work in the community.

If you are a member agency, follow this link to the LFNt login page to place an order.
If you would like to become a member agency, go here.

Here at the ToolBank, we wear many hats — some literal, some figurative. Sometimes we’re equipping home repairs. Sometimes we’re supplying greenspace cleanup efforts. Sometimes we’re powering community events.

And sometimes we’re wearing fuzzy Russian hats.

But always we’re dedicated to helping you and your community stay active and involved. As we approach the end of the year, we want to say hats off (or, in this case, on) to all of our friends, sponsors, volunteers, and member agencies for being a part of a movement toward greater good here in Atlanta! We have felt privileged to work with you and look forward to continuing that work in 2012.

Happy New Year, everyone!

*Note: There will be no post for the next two weeks. Check back on January 9th for the first Obscure Tool Showcase of 2012. Enjoy the holidays!