Balfour Beatty Construction helps raise $50,000 to support Sharefest's 10th Annual Workday

TORRANCE, Calif., May 2, 2013 /3BL Media/ - On Saturday, May 4, seven schools in the Redondo, Torrance, Culver City and Wiseburn School Districts will receive much needed improvements, thanks to more than 350 Balfour Beatty Construction employees, contractors, vendors, site staff, students, family and community members. The annual Sharefest Workday mobilizes thousands of volunteers throughout Los Angeles County every year to complete tangible work projects that will change the quality of life for its residents. In addition, the improvements are provided at no cost to the schools. 

This is the fourth year that Balfour Beatty Construction has joined Sharefest for a hands-on partnership, and the first year that additional financial support was provided through Balfour Beatty Construction/Sharefest’s 1^st annual Golf Tournament held on April 4, 2013 at Skylinks Golf Course in Long Beach, Calif. The event was well attended with 144 golfers and 150 dinner and awards banquet attendees from Balfour Beatty Construction as well as its many partners who helped to raised $50,000 to support the improvement projects taking place at the schools this Saturday.

“We wanted to raise the bar this year and find ways where we could share the vision of Sharefest with our contractors, consultants and vendors, to make an even greater impact in these communities,” said Tom Schlegel, Balfour Beatty Construction’s senior program manager and the company’s Sharefest Project Coordinator. “Golf was the perfect venue for all of our partners and subcontractors to show a strong commitment to giving back to the communities they serve.   Raising $50,000 was an amazing accomplishment for this first year event, and knowing the net results of the monies raised will be used to improve the lives of staff, students and surrounding communities for years to come is extremely gratifying," he added.  

Balfour Beatty Construction is a shining example of the powerful ways that corporations can invest in and support the local communities in which they do business,” said Chad Mayer, executive director of the Sharefest Community Development. “This commitment to service is evident in the amount of resources that Balfour Beatty Construction contributes as well as the amount of time they volunteer to work side-by-side with local community members, students and families. Fostering such key partnerships is one of the goals of the Annual Workday and integral to cultivating sustainable change within our communities,” he added.

Two Sharefest Workday projects in the Torrance Unified School District have already had some  major components of the work completed,  including floor tile installation,  painting of the multipurpose room at Jefferson Middle School, and the slurry and striping of  100,000 square feet of asphalt playground and staff parking lots at Arnold Elementary School. Additional schools that will receive beautification projects include: Parras Middle School, Tulita Elementary School and Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach Unified School District, Da Vinci Science Charter School in Wiseburn School District and Culver City High School in Culver City Unified School District. Work that is planned for completion on Saturday includes: reviving gardens with installation of new plants and general weeding; creating outdoor learning environments; installing decomposed granite walkways; planting native California plants; extensive painting of exterior classroom doors and building facades; cleaning classrooms and multipurpose rooms; planting palm trees; hand crafting and installing garden benches and planter bench combinations; repairing and painting basketball hoops as well as painting site-specific murals.

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An industry leader for more than 80 years, Balfour Beatty Construction provides general contracting, at-risk construction management, and design-build services for a wide variety of markets, serving clients in both the public and private sector.  With more than 2,400 employees across the U.S., the company has been cited as a Top 10 Green Builder by Engineering News-Record, and as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For® by FORTUNE magazine, four years in a row. The company is part of London-based Balfour Beatty plc, a global infrastructure services business operating in more than 80 countries, with a worldwide commitment to providing assets that help societies function, develop, and thrive.  To learn more about the company, visit www.balfourbeattyus.com or look for BalfourBeattyUS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About Sharefest Community Development’s 10^th Annual Workday- Saturday May 4, 2013:

This event mobilizes thousands of volunteers to complete tangible work projects throughout the greater Los Angeles region. Since its inception the Sharefest Workday has mobilized over 40,000 volunteers to complete more than 1,680 projects totaling over $7.5 million. To learn more find us online at http://www.sharefestinc.org/workday or call 310.626.8106.