Designing a Better World Through Community Service
(PRWEB) November 29, 2013 -- A rite of passage for professional engineers is pledging to make the world a better place. Employees at one engineering firm are taking that promise to the next level. Around the world employees at Stanley Consultants are performing community service to say Thank You to the communities and clients that have supported the firm for the past 100 years.
“Each of us has particular interests, concerns, and limitations. Yet each of us can ‘make a difference,’ whether the community of concern is defined locally, nationally, or globally,” said Stanley Consultants Chair Emeritus Dick Stanley. “Each can contribute toward making it a little better. That’s what good citizenship is all about. And, I’m proud to be associated with people and a company who show that good citizenship is more than just talk.”
The firm’s employees are demonstrating that good citizenship on a global scale. From Las Vegas to West Palm Beach to Guam, employees are giving back by lending a hand. During the firm’s centennial year, its employees have volunteered over 7,500 hours of community service and donated over $100,000. And they’re still at it.
“The goal is to get people helping others in their community even if it’s just for one day, or one hour,” says Chris Broders, Guam Office Manager. “Making a small contribution is something we all can do.”
In Austin, Texas, employees have teamed with the Texas Ramp Project to build four wheelchair ramps. On the other side of the world in the company’s Guam Office, employees have revived a graffiti-riddled bus stop with a fresh coat of paint. “One woman was ecstatic because she hated that her son had to sit at a bus stop riddled with graffiti every morning waiting for the school bus,” said Project Principal Rich Stump.
In Phoenix, Arizona, employees volunteer monthly at Feed My Starving Children, hand packing meals formulated for malnourished children, which are then shipped around the world. Employees have donated $3,000 and packed 12,000 meals.
In the United Arab Emirates, employees donated $1,000 to the Red Crescent Society for Syrian refugees displaced by war, and donated refrigerators, washing machines and stoves to six refugee families. In Doha, Qatar, employees sent relief funds to typhoon victims in the Philippines.
Salt Lake City Office employees and their families painted three main corridors in Thomas O. Smith elementary school. “It was built in the 1950s, and the walls looked like they had not been painted in some time. This really freshened things up,” shared Office Manager Mark Freeman.
Des Moines, Iowa, employees were part of Meals from the Heartland, one of the nation’s largest volunteer food packaging efforts that netted over five million meals in four days. “We worked fast and furious,” said Principal Environmental Engineer Ed Slattery. “Our team packed over 1,150 meals in two hours. “
In Chuuk, Micronesia, employees participated in a beach cleanup event and then took it one step further. Every subsequent weekend they have paid Chuukese children $1 for every garbage bag they fill with trash. On this poverty stricken island, the children give their earnings to their mothers to help buy food.
Employees in Florida and Baton Rouge are supporting Habitat for Humanity. “It is a great opportunity to give a little bit back to the community that has given so much,” said Senior Transportation Engineer Renaud Olivier, who was part of a team helping to rebuild a West Palm Beach house battered by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.
Employees in Chicago, Denver, and Phoenix are volunteering with Engineers Without Borders to bring clean water to the village of Armenta in the Honduras. During a recent trip employees donated shoes, tooth brushes, tooth paste and soccer balls to local children.
Employees in the Las Vegas Office are supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada through an eight-week science program that promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Participants learned about structural soundness by building a table out of newspapers and tape that was strong enough to support a stack of books.
Engineering and community service often share a similar goal of making the world a better place. One office and one event at a time, the firm’s employees are improving lives and living conditions through both their professional service and through community service. “I’m proud and inspired by the many ways our employees give back to our professional practice as well as our local, national and world communities,” said Stanley Consultants’ President and CEO Gayle Roberts.
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Currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, Stanley Consultants, headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa, provides program management, planning, engineering, environmental and construction services worldwide. Recognized for its commitment to client service and a passion to make a difference, Stanley Consultants brings global knowledge, experience and capabilities to serve clients in the energy, water, transportation and Federal markets. Since 1913, Stanley Consultants has successfully completed more than 25,000 engagements in all 50 states, U.S. territories, and in 103 countries. For more information on Stanley Consultants, please visit http://www.stanleyconsultants.com.
Mary Jo Finchum, Stanley Consultants, +1 (563) 264-6485, [email protected]
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