Our Chantilly office has been participating in toy drives since 1997. This year, they collected donations for Toys for Tots and supported the Rare Kids Network Cards for Kids Holiday Drive, which provides sick children with the means to have adequate nutrition and gifts during the holidays.
Our Charleston office collected toys this holiday season for a veteran mom with two children through Hope for the Warriors. With several former and current military team members, it was a meaningful cause for many in the office.
Bill Denison in our Chesapeake office volunteers with Norfolk Collegiate Schools LEGO Robotics Team. Their innovative project uses pervious concrete to help alleviate stormwater run-off and flooding and won at the VA/DC FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament in November. They recently competed in the State Championship at James Madison University.
Our Chicago office participated in CANstruction Chicago for the fourth year in a row with Power Construction, Eriksson Engineering Associates and FitzGerald Associates Architects with their CANsculpture dubbed “CANthedral.” The design used 7,086 cans (6,015 pounds of food) that were donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Our Daytona office also hosted a staff food drive and collected 100 canned food items for Halifax Urban Ministries for Flagler and Volusia counties.
Patrick Kitcher in our Frederick office recently took time from his busy schedule to explain his work, and the importance of soils and concrete lab testing, to a great group of local high school students. The students are part of the Linking Students to New Experiences (LYNX) program at Frederick High School.
Our Fort Myers office worked a three hour shift at the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida to package about 1,200 pounds of carrots into 3 pound bags for a total of 400 individual meals.
Our Jacksonville office hosted a staff food drive and collected 5,670 non-perishable food items to construct a lighthouse mini-golf hole at the 6th Annual Build-Putt-Give Food and Scholarship Drive. ECS won the Grand Prize Award for Most Food Donated!
ECS Mid-Atlantic’s PAWS (Promoting All Women’s Strengths) program supported professional women in our community with the PAWS for a Cause professional clothing drive effort. Offices throughout the Mid-Atlantic region collected clothing to benefit Dress for Success Central Virginia. Founded in 2012 in Richmond, Virginia, their mission is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Our Nashville office recently donated over 85 pounds of food for the Nashville Food Project. Southeast Environmental’s Teri Horsley led the effort. “I wanted to lead a food drive because 1 out of 6 people in the area go hungry every day,” she said. “The Nashville Food Project is different in that they prepare meals from their own garden and from donated items in their kitchen – then put it on their food trucks and take it to the marginal neighborhoods, after school programs, and missions.”
Our Orlando office packed 1,080 individual meals (45 bags in 24 boxes) during the NAIOP Hunger Project’s annual event benefiting Feeding Children Everywhere. Over 50,000 individual meals were packed at this event.
Our Tampa team worked a four hour shift at Feeding Tampa Bay to help package 4,350 pounds of food.
Our West Palm Beach office hosted a staff food drive and collected 110 food items for the Palm Beach County Food Bank.
Southeast Environmental’s Shannon Priester and Kristen Cottrell volunteered at Haven of Lee County’s No Scare Fair.
Twice a year the Boy Scouts of America – Capitol Area Council puts on a Hornaday Conservation Award Training weekend where over 500 Scouts attend a weekend camp at Lost Pines Scout Reservation. Southwest Environmental’s Roger Willis taught three Forestry Merit Badge classes to over 90 Scouts during the weekend. Teaching young Scouts can be trying, and Roger exemplified the ECS tradition of GRIT as well as our belief in giving back to our community.