Brush Up Buffalo to Paint in Lovejoy Neighborhood in June

Brush Up Buffalo, a not-for-profit, all-volunteer organization focused on revitalizing City of Buffalo neighborhoods, announced this morning at a kick-off event breakfast that it will paint the Lovejoy Neighborhood for Brush Up Buffalo 2006, which takes place on Saturday, June 17, 2006. The organization plans to paint approximately 20 houses occupied by low-income City of Buffalo homeowners within the area bounded by the following streets: Bailey Avenue, Walden Avenue, Pine Ridge Road and Delavan Avenue.

At this morning’s breakfast, Brush Up Buffalo also received a $ 5,000 check from UPS towards the annual event, which is now in its 10th year. Brush Up Buffalo also announced that it learned of three additional donors earlier this week: Bank of America ($ 5,000), Capital Management Services ($ 2,500) and American Axle ($ 1,000).
 
“We’re absolutely thrilled with the corporate support for Brush Up Buffalo,” said Roseann Scibilia, president of Brush Up Buffalo. “The funding puts us right around where we need to be for this year’s event. It not only ensures a revitalized Lovejoy neighborhood, but now helps us to focus more on another vital component of Brush Up Buffalo 2006 – volunteers. We encourage everyone to visit the website at www.brushupbuffalo.org <http://www.brushupbuffalo.org/>  to learn more about how rewarding this event is every June, and then sign up for this year’s event. In fact, we challenge entire businesses to participate. This year, thanks to the generous support of organizations like American Axle, Bank of America, Capital Management Services and UPS, we can paint at least 20 houses but will need about 800 volunteers to complete the work.”
 
Since its inception in 1996, Brush Up Buffalo has contributed to the revitalization of neighborhoods that are important to the future of Buffalo by painting more than 190 homes. Last year, in approximately four hours, more than 500 volunteers painted 15 homes in the Kensington-Bailey area.
 
Additional sponsors-to-date for Brush Up Buffalo 2006 include Citizens Financial Group, East Hill Foundation, Ford Motor Credit, Lantrax Corporation and McGraw-Hill. Sponsors who provided $ 500 or more of in-kind donations for last year’s event included the Boy Scouts of America, Business First of Buffalo, Delaware Camera, Happy Ice, Perry’s Ice Cream, Russer Foods, Try-It Distributing and Upstate Farms.
 
Interested sponsors or volunteers are asked to visit www.brushupbuffalo.org <http://www.brushupbuffalo.org/>  for more information or contact the organization by phone at 716-250-3353. The fundraising preferred deadline is April 28, 2006, and painting volunteers are encouraged to sign up by May 26, 2006.
 
Teams currently signed up for Brush Up Buffalo 2006 include Adelphia Communications, American Axle, Amherst Senior Center, Aspire of WNY, Bank of America, Belmont Shelter, Buffalo 2032, Buffalo Niagara Partnership, Business First, Capital Management Services, Ciminelli Construction, CleverMethod, Creditors Interchange, Crowley Webb and Associates, Eric Mower and Associates, Full Circle Studios, Greater Buffalo Savings Bank, HSBC Bank, Ingram Micro, Kenilworth United Church of Christ, Leadership Buffalo, M&T Bank, Notre Dame Alumni, Realty USA, University of Buffalo, UPS and Verizon.