The staff at the Community Foundation is skilled at responsibly and effectively handing out grants, but we also can get our hands dirty.

Two crews from the Foundation have signed up for morning and afternoon duty at Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Fox Cities Area’s Rock the Block in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Menasha. Rock the Block brings an army of volunteers to a neighborhood and, in only a few days, completes a range of repair, weatherization and handicapped accessibility improvements to homes of residents who sign up and to public spaces.

Beyond today’s sweat equity, the Community Foundation awarded a $300,000 Community Leadership Initiative grant to help get the program started.

Rock the Block started last fall in the Pierce Avenue section of Appleton and resumed during the first week in May in Neenah’s Downtown West neighborhood.

The pictures tell the story of our staff’s involvement today.

Donors to Rock the Block include the Community Foundation.

The morning crew, from left, Linda Hansen, Shelly Leadley, Marti Hemwall, Tammy Williams, Kelly Randerson and Terri Towle.

Shelly Leadley demonstrates her wheelbarrow skills.

One of the houses in the neighborhood that got new windows.