By Dan King

Volunteers from the Lowe’s store in Queensbury are investing their time in Whitehall.
As part of the company’s Lowe’s Heroes program, volunteers are spending the week at the Whitehall Rec Center, making upgrades to that facility.
“It’s really brightening it up and modernizing it,” said Rec Director Julie Eagan.
The volunteers are repainting the interior, redoing the boys and girls bathrooms, and installing solar-activated lights outside.
Aimee Welsh, the store’s human resources manager, said the Rec Center reached out to Lowe’s about the possibility of remedying the fence along the canal.
“When our rep came up to speak with them, they noticed there was so much we could do here,” Welsh said. “We thought it was really a great opportunity to give back to the community.”
Over the course of this week, 12 to 15 volunteers have made their way up each day to work on the project.
While other walls are getting painted, the Paul Wager Memorial Wall is not. Instead, the volunteers are making a frame to go around the mural, which recognizes the late Whitehall wrestling coach.
“It’s something that’s clearly important to the community,” Welsh said of the Wager Memorial.
Eagan said the other walls in the Rec Center will be changed from dark maroon to a white with orange, blue and green. She also said there will eventually be a painting on one of the walls recognizing 100 years on Whitehall football – 2014 was the 100th year that Whitehall High School fielded a varsity football team.
In addition to the Lowe’s volunteers, Welsh received extra help from Scott Roberts, a Valspar rep, who donated paint and his time.
This is just the latest in a long line of upgrades that have been made to the Rec Center by volunteers over the last few years. In 2014, volunteers from Arkansas came up and made upgrades the building’s exterior.
Lowe’s Heroes project is dedicated to “transforming lives one community at a time.” The project serves communities that patronize local Lowe’s stores. Funds for the project come entirely from Lowe’s.