Virginia State University News October 15, 2021 VSU and the Home Depot Partner together to Support Health and Fitness Ground work began today on $30 thousand VSU Outdoor Fitness Park Virginia State University has partnered with The Home Depot to create a new outdoor fitness park on the VSU campus. Earlier this year, Virginia State University was selected as one of 30 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) nationwide to win the Home Depot Retool Your School contest after receiving a high number of votes from students, alumni, and advocates. As a winner of the contest, Virginia State University received a $30,000 grant to make outdoor upgrades or improvements to campus. Students voted to create the outdoor fitness park space to provide a new area on campus to stay active in a fun and engaging way. The fitness park is located near the main entrance of campus. The Home Depot associate volunteer force will work alongside Virginia State University students and staff to complete the campus beautification project. "Student health and wellness is always one of our top priorities here at Virginia State University and when talking about health, we know preventative care is important," said Dr. Donald E. Palm, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs. "The building of this fitness park shows that we want students to also prioritize physical health in addition to their mental health." The Home Depot Retool Your School program has provided more than 140 sustainable campus improvement grants since the program was established in 2009 to contribute to campus improvement projects to preserve the beauty and longevity of historic institutions like Virginia State University. The project is expected to be complete by mid-December. Click Here<https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWUWxhW> for photos of The Home Depot associate volunteer force working alongside Virginia State University students and staff to begin the campus beautification project. Feel free to use these photos to share our story. Sandra M. Phoenix, Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> Honor the ancestors, honor the children and those yet to come. Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at HBCUs - Become an ally and partner with us to protect, preserve and share a more authentic record of American history. Follow this link http://hbculibraries.org/humanities-2019.html for more information. Follow this link http://hbculibraries.org/ and click on the Donate Now button to invest in this project. Your support is appreciated. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/