Power Home Remodeling Gives Back: Supporting Youth Sports and Wrestling in Chicago

Culture

Power Home Remodeling (“POWER”) is committed to making a lasting difference in the communities we serve. Through our “Circle for Good” program, territories across the country are given the tools and resources to create nonprofit partnerships—like our Chicago Office and Beat the Streets Chicago—a youth nonprofit that uses wrestling and enrichment programs to empower students across the city. Read on to see how POWER’s Chicago team helped transform their training facility and the lives of local kids.

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

Wrestling is one of the world’s oldest forms of competition. It has taught centuries of men and women lessons of grit, resilience, and self-discipline. In many ways, the values carried by wrestlers can be found within POWER employees. That rings especially true for Adam Yde, a Chicago-based Remodeling Consultant who nominated Beat the Streets Chicago as his office’s Circle for Good partner.

Beat the Streets Chicago believes that anyone can be the hero of their own story. Established in 1994, they now boast 33 locations across the greater Chicago area that provide wrestling programs and after school enrichment that turn more than 1,800 youth across the city into “life champions”. It’s an organization that’s sorely needed; with youth sports participation rates declining across the country, providing kids with after school activities that help grow their mind, body, and soul are more important than ever.

CIRCLE UP, CHICAGO

For POWER employees, who work tirelessly to improve the lives of homeowners, finding a way to give back to the communities they serve comes second nature. Being a youth wrestler himself, Yde knows the impact the sport can make on a young person’s life. So when he nominated Beat The Streets Chicago for a Circle for Good grant, his office recognized the need to support such a significant organization.

POWER’s “Circle for Good” program is based around the collective giving model of giving circles, where individuals with shared values gather to pool funding to give to an organization addressing key issues within their community. POWER brought this concept in-house, by seeding funding in 21 of POWER’s offices, and empowering employees to create one-year partnerships with a non-profit aligned with their passions. The grant was reviewed and selected by the Chicago office, awarding a transformative $200,000 contribution to Beat the Streets Chicago. The money helped the organization renovate a new training center located in an old church. Post-completion, it is now recognized as the second largest youth-wrestling facility in the country.

A LIFETIME OF ENRICHMENT

The benefits of a Circle for Good grant go far beyond just monetary support. Yde’s team took a group of kids from Beat the Streets Chicago to an active POWER installation site, where the youth wrestlers spent an afternoon getting a behind the scenes look at everything that goes into a remodel. They interacted with siding products, oversee how the installation process works, and finished with a tour of POWER Chicago’s state of the art office where they played pool, got briefed career opportunities that exist at POWER, and interacted with employees from all walks of life. Later, POWER employees took to the mats to watch the kids go through their wrestling routines. The partnership further proves that two heavyweights can work together to achieve a common goal.

LET’S LINK ARMS

If you’d like to support Beat the Streets Chicago directly, please visit their website to learn more, donate, or get involved. All contributions go directly to Beat the Streets Chicago.

Back to News

How-To