Lowe’s Home Improvement was a hero to the Suffolk Youth Athletic Association on Friday.

Employees from the Lowe’s store located at 1216 N. Main St. donated their time and $4,240 worth of store materials to SYAA’s baseball and softball complex as part of the Lowe’s Heroes project.

Lowe’s Heroes is a long-running company-wide volunteer program that supports community improvement projects.

“The goal of the Heroes program is to make the communities better and to give back,” said Steve Poole, manager of the local Lowe’s store. “Obviously, we take great pride in our communities, and that’s why we want to give back.”

SYAA head baseball/softball commissioner John Brinkley was excited to receive the support.

“They were trying to do it back in July but they could never make it because of the weather, and all of a sudden they’re here,” he said on Friday. “It means a lot. Obviously, everything out here is a volunteer effort, so anytime you get volunteers out here working on their own dime, it’s a good thing.”

There will now be a lot more seating available around the complex thanks to Lowe’s.

“We’re donating 14 picnic tables that we’re staining,” Poole said. “If you’ve ever been out here on a sports day when they have all these tournaments and everything, there wasn’t a lot of places for people to sit and take a break other than the bleachers.”

About 15 Lowe’s employees worked busily on a variety of tasks Friday, including painting the poles and fascia board of the concession stand, as well as the roofed area at the main entrance to the complex.

“We’re going to put down probably 25 or 35 gallons of paint and stain,” Poole said.

Another primary objective for the day was to give the main entrance a complete makeover.

“We’re putting in a garden feature over there where they’re working right now with some evergreens behind it, and we’re actually going to do marble rock and a baseball (design) to have a place for people to take pictures if they want,” Poole said. “So it was just kind of weeds and things of that nature prior to us showing up, so that turned that into a little focal point as that’s the main entrance.”

Pleased with the upgrade being made there, Brinkley noted, “Appearance is everything, it makes people feel good.”

Poole said as early as April he and his staff began considering what organization they would help for 2015, using some key questions to guide their search.

“What’s the benefit for the organization, and how can we help, how can we make our biggest impact?” he said. “The last thing we want to do is come out and really not do anything for somebody when we have the availability to do something for so many people.”

After looking at a couple different nonprofit organizations across Suffolk, Poole said he and his staff determined SYAA was the best choice.

“All the little kids that come through this area and all the tournaments they do here, we felt like, as a nonprofit, this was a good area to focus on,” he said.