Engineering Inc. - September/October 2016 - 42

Hamming won't be the only Tampa, Florida, and one of one sorting through the strings the leaders responsible for the of tangled lights. Another annual community service 10 to 20 Stantec volunteers day. "This was a push for one will be there with him, and day for us to rally together as a couple hundred more will a company. We found that be working on other projects by letting each office identify around the city, sprucing up what is important to them, garden spaces at day cares and it gives everybody an opporpreparing and serving meals "This [Stantec in tunity to take some leaderfor the disadvantaged. and ownership over the the Community ship Across the world, Hamming program." Day] was a push knows Stantec employees will Last year, more than for one day be doing similar work on the 7,300 Stantec employees- same day. In London, they'll up from around 4,000 on for us to rally be riding their bikes 54 miles the first companywide comtogether as a to support a children's charity; munity day in 2013-parcompany." in Tucson, Arizona, they'll be ticipated in activities that KIM AUSTIN packing meals for elementary ranged from making blanSTANTEC school kids; and in Sarasota, kets for children's hospitals, Florida, they'll be creating to constructing a wishing oyster habitats. well, to holding a bake sale. Like the lights Hamming is testing and During the first year of the program, packing, each of these efforts is valuable on Austin volunteered with her office at a its own. But when you step back and conmetropolitan ministry that assists families sider them altogether, the effect is stunning. who have fallen on hard times. Stantec employees went through the facility's living Rallying Together quarters, stripping the beds and doing all That day in September is Stantec in the of the organization's laundry. The next year Community Day, an initiative started in Austin participated in a river walk cleanup, 2013 to unify employees around their exist- and last year she volunteered to assemble ing community service efforts. educational packets at a local aquarium. "Community engagement already hapIn addition to the obvious benefits for pens naturally throughout the year," says the partner organizations, Stantec in the Kim Austin, vice president of regional mar- Community Day helps forge new connecketing and communications for Stantec, tions and strengthen existing ones between 365 Days of Service Stantec's commitment to community engagement doesn't start and stop with a single day. The company partners with charitable and community organizations year-round in hundreds of different ways. In 2015, Stantec gave more than $2.95 million in cash and in-kind donations to arts, education, environmental, and health and wellness programs. The company's year-round Dollars for Doers program million in cash allocates company funds to support community and in-kind groups in which Stantec employees volunteer, and donations the company also regularly supports employees who was presented travel to places like Madagascar, Honduras and Nepal in 2015 with Engineers Without Borders. 2.95 $ Stantec team members also regularly mentor and speak to students at schools around the country, and the company sponsors educational events such as Popsicle bridge-building competitions to promote STEM learning. 42 ENGINEERING INC. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 the firm and the community, and among employees themselves. Many of the places where employees volunteer are chosen because the firm has worked with them on engineering projects in the past, or because employees who already volunteer with the organizations have suggested them as partners. "It's really created a focus for us," says Scott Murray, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Stantec. "It helped us identify an activity where we could engage staff in the community and let them have an opportunity to be active and give back, particularly with each other outside of the office setting. It was so well received by the staff and by local communities, and it was really, really gratifying to see it all come together." Building Team Spirit While Stantec workers in many regions split up to work on a number of different projects, the employees at the company's two Boston offices unite for a single day of service. "That's partially what makes Stantec in the Community Day so special, that we all come together for one event," says Erin Garnaas-Holmes, an urban designer who coordinates the service day in Boston. "It's a good way to get us together and build that team spirit, but then we're also doing community service." Boston Parks and Recreation, in addition to being the beneficiary of Stantec employees' volunteer hours, is also a client. "It's important-and fun-to develop that relationship a little further," GarnaasHolmes says. "We have a lot of landscape architects and engineers that are working on projects in parks, and to go back to a site and volunteer to keep it going is fun for folks." During the cleanup day last September, more than 100 Stantec employees spent the afternoon tidying a corner of Franklin Park, a sprawling green space that houses a zoo and a golf course, which is also flanked by racially and socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods. The workers arrived in small groups, many via public transportation, all decked out in the same red T-shirt. "People came out raring to go," says Garnaas-Holmes. Over the course of the day, informal teams vied to fill more trash bags than one another, even sending "spies" to check in

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