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The owners of the Northern Greensboro Ace Hardware store — which has been open a little more than a month — are already giving back.

On Nov. 9, Ace co-owner Doug Brown met with representatives from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro to donate
30 hand tools.

“We’re always trying to be a store for the community, so teaming up with Habitat was a natural thing,” Brown said.

Prior to the store’s grand opening, Brown and the other owners, with help from a public relations firm, ran a promotion to help get the word out about their business and to help Habitat.

“They contacted us and said they were going to give us a hand tool for every 10 e-mails that signed up for the mailing list,” said Sarah Hodge , the volunteer and communications coordinator for Habitat.

About 300 people signed up for the store’s mailing list and gave Habitat a chance to restock items such as hammers, tape measures and paint brushes.

“This is a really important donation,” Hodge said. “We need to be able to provide our volunteers with the tools they need so they can work effectively.”

Habitat construction leader Amanda Albert agrees.

“We usually have a hard time hanging on to our tools — they get lost or broken, so it’s nice to have a donation like this,” she said.

On average, a Habitat build has about 20 volunteers and requires about 20 hammers, 10 tape measures and five speed squares, plus others materials.

“Our hope is that we can hold on to them as long as we can,” Albert said.

“It allows the volunteers to have a better experience because they can be more interactive with the job they are doing.”

While Habitat receives aid from businesses and individuals all over the Gate City, this has been a unique promotion, Hodge said. Albert agrees, but says it is efficient.

“We’re always having to refill our supply of hand tools,” she said. “If we can get people to donate them, that’s just more money we can put toward building houses.”

Brown says he has participated in Habitat builds since he was a student at Wake Forest University.

He feels that helping the organization in this way will help the store get closer to one of its most important goals.

“We really want to become a part of the fabric of the community and what better way than to give back to it,” he said.

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373- 7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com