PPG has completed a Colorful Communities^® project at the Bilderdijkhof community center in Uithoorn, Netherlands. The project brought together 70 PPG employees who spent two days repainting the interior with a color palette selected by PPG color experts. PPG provided more than $55,000 (€55,000) to support the renovation and supplied more than 330 liters of SIGMA COATINGS™ paint by PPG. This included innovative products such as SIGMA AIR PURE™ air-purifying indoor wall paint that uses bio-based raw materials, and the PPG SPRAYMASTER™, a portable paint spraying system that was used to apply water-based Sigma S2U Allure paint.

The Colorful Communities program provides PPG volunteers and products along with financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where the company operates around the world, such as in Uithoorn, where it has an architectural coatings facility. The Bilderdijkhof center is part of Participe Amstelland, a welfare organization that supports residents of Uithoorn so that they can continue to actively participate in society. The PPG volunteers repainted the center, including the day care area for people with dementia, offices, corridors, and a billiard room using a dementia-friendly color scheme with muted tones for the main walls and fresh greens and yellows for the contrasting walls. 

“Thanks to this metamorphosis, we hope that the community center will be even more vibrant,” said Anke van der Veen, manager of Participe Amstelland. “PPG's thorough and enthusiastic approach was a reason for Participe to invest in the renovation itself, including new floors, curtains, furniture, and toilets. We expect that with the new, fresh look, not only our current visitors will come to the community center with even more pleasure, but that new visitors, young and old, will also find us.”

“It's good to be here in this community center – it’s a place where people meet; those who are lonely, those with early dementia, or those who just come for fun. It's nice to see that connection,” said Justus Tichelman, PPG general manager Benelux Trade. “Through our Colorful Communities project, we have brought PPG’s purpose – We protect and beautify the world – to life. And we have done that with pleasure, with our employees, our products, and our expertise.”

Atfer completion of the project, José de Robles, alderman for Care of Uithoorn, unveiled a plaque to mark the collaboration between Participe and PPG. 

“As an alderman, I regularly talk about social cohesion, but here it really happens,” de Robles said. “Participe plays an important role in Uithoorn in creating that social connection. But what also makes this project important to me is that volunteers have been busy here to renovate the community center. To be honest, that was necessary – nothing had been done about it for many years. It is impressive what PPG and Participe have achieved here together. They can rightly be proud of that.”

The Colorful Communities program, PPG’s signature initiative for supporting communities, aims to protect and beautify the neighborhoods where PPG operates around the world. Through the Colorful Communities program, PPG’s committed volunteers contribute their time and PPG paint products to help transform community assets – from painting a classroom, to bringing color to a maternity ward, and to redesigning a playground. Since 2015, PPG has completed more than 400 Colorful Communities projects, impacting more than 7.4 million people in 42 countries.

For more information, visit: communities.ppg.com.