It’s been a big week for Ireland’s Finest! Hard Times Soft Hearts is in full swing and our guys are at New Jerusalem right now working on the exterior painting of the building. It is really starting to come together.

We were surprised this week with the City and County of Denver proclaiming that September 17 being “Hard Times Soft Hearts” day! They recognized the hard work we had put into this program and also acknowledged our partners in the initiative as well since they provided additional services such as carpentry, gutter installation, welding and trash removal. We were very fortunate to have Benjamin Moore Paints, Burning Metal Welding, Weaver Construction, Weaver Custom Contracting, Mile High Gutters, Signs by Tomorrow and Denver Disposal as partners throughout this process and thank them for their participation!

In addition to the honor of being recognized for our work in the community, yesterday was an exciting day when Jon Bowman of Fox 31 News visited the worksite and shot a story about HTSH. Jon was very interested in the story from the beginning and supported us by reporting on the project when we first opened the contest to nominees back in September 2011. Yesterday’s shoot went really well with our owner, Andrew Toole being interviewed by Jon. The biggest question Jon had for Andrew was why a regional painting contractor in Denver wanted to take on such a large project. Andrew said, “Denver has so good to us over the years, we want to give back to the community that has given so much to us.” Andrew is right. Ireland’s Finest recognizes and appreciates the neighborhoods; it’s residents and businesses that make us a successful and professional commercial and residential painting contractor. We couldn’t do it without their support. We are honored to do this little something to give back.

As New Jerusalem gets it’s new paint job (with quality paint provided by Benjamin Moore, by the way), we are still looking for a charitable contractor to come in and replace the roof. It is in dire need of repair. We are more than capable to paint the exterior of this historic home and improving it aesthetically, but the homeless women who safely sleep here every night need to know that they won’t be waking up to a leaking roof. So this is our pitch to any contractors out there asking for them to act on those charitable sentiments that are in all of us.