PPG recently completed a COLORFUL COMMUNITIES project in the North Side area of Pittsburgh, PA, that helped revitalize the TLC Learning Center. The Colorful Communities program provides PPG volunteers and paint products along with financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where the company operates around the world, including Pittsburgh, PPG’s global headquarters city.

The project brought together nearly 30 PPG volunteers who spent the day revitalizing four rooms at the early childhood center through painting and carpet installation. The project also included a custom mural on one of the main walls that illustrates a vivid outdoor landscape. Volunteers donated new books to the center, and PPG provided approximately 45 gallons of PPG PAINTS products for the project.

The volunteers painted the facility in PPG Paints colors Blonde Beauty and Sweet Dreams, which were chosen to create a calming and comforting space for the children who attend the center.
The Colorful Communities event was conducted in partnership with Reading is FUNdamental (RIF) Pittsburgh, an independent affiliate of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., which is the oldest and largest nonprofit children’s and family literacy organization in the United States. RIF Pittsburgh addresses critical needs in the area by providing more than 100,000 books and offering consistent, high-quality literacy and educational programming for more than 21,000 economically disadvantaged children in Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities. RIF Pittsburgh’s Storymobile (a library on wheels) provides bi-weekly programming to the children and staff at the TLC Learning Center.

The PPG Foundation provided a $10,000 grant to RIF Pittsburgh to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educational programming. This grant will allow for continued programming enhancements and educational materials, which will benefit children attending the TLC Learning Center.

“We are very grateful for the support from PPG and the PPG Foundation in helping us provide visibility into the world of STEM through the integration of literature to some of our community’s littlest learners. Combining literature and science can help fuel youngsters’ growing sense of intellectual adventure and discovery,” said Florri Ladov, executive director of RIF Pittsburgh.