Building Self-Esteem

The invasion of the mini orange aprons is taking place on a bright morning at Home Depot. By the dozens, children stream to the tables set up in front of the Van Nuys store, and those who aren’t wearing the pint-size version of an employee’s uniform are soon issued one. With parent in tow, they are ready to get down to the business of crafting a wooden carousel.

They have come to the twice-a-month Kids Workshop, a Saturday morning staple at Home Depots across the country, to spend an hour or so creating a project with their parents. Over the next two hours, almost 100 of them will put together the prepackaged kit, then let their imaginations soar as they paint the base and the animals that adorn it.

“The parents almost enjoy it more than the kids,” says Heidi Bertsch, one of three employees helping to run the workshop. “The parents are always saying, ‘You did such a good job,’ and the parents really did it.”

One thing the parents definitely enjoy about the workshop is its price. It’s free, part of a community service the chain offers at its 54 stores in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties and at about 650 others across the country, says Suzanne Apple, director of community affairs at Home Depot’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta.

The workshops were a local phenomenon first, springing up at stores in California, Phoenix and Seattle before the program was taken nationwide in October 1997. Since then, nearly 2 million children’s aprons have been handed out, which works out to about 150,000 junior craftsmen in the Southland area, Apple says.

Each Home Depot is free to stage the workshops a little differently, as long as they are held at least once a month. Because they are so popular, many stores offer them twice a month. Projects also vary from store to store.

At the Van Nuys store, the projects used to be more construction oriented, but now they veer toward crafts because the kids get more out of it when the activities are easier to do, says Ed Spangler, assistant manager. The store plots out its workshop schedule six months at a time, with input from employees and an eye toward the holiday calendar.

The Van Nuys workshop operates on a budget of $600 a month, but more money is made available when demand goes up, says Sandy Martinez, the Van Nuys workshop coordinator. The store bulk-ordered 100 of the carousel kits for $400, but other material, such as paint, is pulled off the store’s shelves.

When children complete 10 workshops, they take part in a graduation ceremony that includes a certificate and pin. “One of the key elements of the program is a sense of accomplishment,” Apple says. “We’ve designed a little diploma, and they can collect the pins on their aprons.”

Because Home Depot isn’t the most kid-friendly store around, the company wanted to create an environment where parents could share an experience there with their children, Apple says.

“We’re hoping to build the next generation of Home Depot associates,” Apple says, using the company’s term for “employees,” “and take brand loyalty to a new level. . . . We get so many letters from customers who say, ‘It’s the best hour a week I spend with my child.’ ”

Many parents at the Van Nuys session are first-timers who look like they would agree.

“He wants to be a carpenter,” says Kim Heistand, 36, of Reseda, motioning to her 6-year-old son, Joshua, who is there with three siblings. “That’s why we came down here, to see if I could enroll him in a class. We’ll come back. It’s great.”

Jay Johnson, 26, of Canoga Park, is working intently with his daughter Cheyenne, 5, on a carefully painted carousel with artistic purple splotches. They’d been meaning to come for the past year, but just managed to make it to this one. “We’re going to go from one Home Depot workshop to the next after this,” he says.

“It’s really a neat idea,” says Serena Tobias, 35, who has been bringing her son, Joshua, for the past two years. “It’s good for his hand-eye coordination. He’s not particularly interested in finishing it, but I can see development. He’s trying to do more. The hardest part for me is that I want to do the project, too.”

“I like to make some stuff,” says Joshua, 4. “I love to do so many different kinds of things. I liked-ed the parrot and the carousel, the airplane and the helicopter.”

With that, he flings his apron over his shoulder, effectively turning it into a cape, announces he’s Superman and prepares to fly away.

BE THERE

Kids Workshops, Home Depot, Saturdays. Free. Check local store for project themes and times. Van Nuys store, 16810 Roscoe Blvd., meets the first and third Saturday of the month, 10 a.m. to noon. Van Nuys store: (818) 786-9600.