Getting Dirty for a Great Cause
Graham's Seattle field and office staff got dirty for a great cause when they volunteered at a community enhancement project for a local non-profit organization last fall.
"It was a wonderful opportunity to give back to our community," says Michelle Rose, Office Manager, Seattle. "Our office had been looking to do some volunteer work and in the end, I think we all got so much more out of it than we had anticipated."
On a beautiful day, armed with a go-to-it attitude, 40 Graham employees and family members volunteered at the Ryther Child Center in north Seattle. The center provides housing as well as inpatient and outpatient programs for children and youth who are at-risk or troubled due to neglect, mental illness, or emotional, physical, sexual and/or chemical abuse. The center's goal is to provide a safe place for the kids to heal and grow.
As part of several other projects scheduled that day to enhance the children's environment, the Graham team of field labor employees and managers alike did landscaping, re-built and painted a fence around a playground, pressure-washed the surrounding area and built a new nature trail for the kids.
"I've overseen trail construction on several of these projects and I've never seen a group of people build a trail so quickly," says Scott Kindred, lead volunteer of the event's organizer, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). "We were pretty much done with 400 feet of trail by 10:30 a.m. This was work that I estimated based on previous experience would normally take us at least until noon. This is a testimony to the dedication and hard work that the Graham employees put into the job."
The group is looking forward to volunteering again to make it an annual endeavor.
"We hope it made a small difference in the lives of these children," says Rose. "Knowing what they're going through in their lives, it was rewarding just knowing we contributed in some way."
