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Lowe’s workers volunteer at Riverhead’s Grangebel Park

lowes, Route 58, Grangebel Park, downtown Riverhead
TIM GANNON PHOTO | Workers from the Riverhead Lowe’s store on Route 58 spent Tuesday morning doing volunteer work at Grangebel park.

About 10 volunteers from Lowe’s on Route 58 spent their off day Tuesday fixing up Grangebel Park in downtown Riverhead.

The volunteer effort is part of the company’s “Lowe’s Heroes” program, through which a store’s employees undertake volunteer work in communities where the company has a store.

On Tuesday, Lowe’s staffers spread about 200 to 300 bags of pea gravel to refinish the trails that wind through Grangebel, and they applied about 200 to 300 bags of red mulch to areas where the existing mulch had receded, said Doug Wadsworth, the human resources director of the Riverhead store, and the organizer of the volunteer effort.

He’s been organizing local volunteers for about three months, coordinating the team’s efforts with town officials and Lowe’s corporate officials, he said.

“I had met with the town supervisor [Sean Walter] and [town Community Development director Chris Kempner] for a walk-around recently to see how much material we needed and what needed to be done,” he said.

Mr. Walter and other town officials, in turn, presented the volunteers with a proclamation Tuesday morning as a sign of their appreciation.

“When Lowe’s comes into a community, we want to do business, but we also want to be good neighbors,” said Marcus Lewis, the manager of the Route 58 store. “This park was in need of some mulching and some pea gravel restoration to make the park safer, and make it better. It’s a beautiful park, so we thought we would help out by doing some extra things for the community.”

In addition to the Lowe’s employees volunteering their time on their day off, the company also donated all of the materials used in the park restoration, Mr. Lewis said.

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