A guiding principle of BMWC is for our employees to become involved in the communities in which we work and live. Many of our employees participate in various ways by serving on boards of nonprofit agencies, volunteering our time to help out various organizations and participating in fund raising to help with specific causes or campaigns of organizations in our communities. Recently, our employees worked together for two great causes.
From the Indianapolis office, Project Engineer Craig Sorenson led the effort with help from Kimberly Blanco to help a local community in the Indianapolis area refurbish a home for a gentleman as part of the annual Rebuilding Together initiative. BMWC has participated in this event for several years by donating money and sponsoring a home or several homes as well as providing labor. Additionally, Rich Rhodes currently serves on the board of Rebuilding Together.
This year the work involved:
- Installing a new half bath on the first floor
- Renovating the 2nd floor bathroom shower
- Replacing the broken clothes dryer
- New landscaping (mulch, plants, flowers & cleanup)
- Removing carpet in areas that will be replaced
- Scraping/sanding flaking paint in living room
- Repainting living room, stairwell and 2nd floor landing (common area)
- Installing new blinds
- Installing adhesive floor tiles for 1st floor half bath
- Removing existing cabinets in kitchen
- Removing trash and old furniture.
This effort took a lot of pre-planning, coordination and pre-work before the official work day. After the day of rebuilding, many items were left to complete. Approximately 15 of our office employees and many of our union employees donated their time and expertise to help make this a success.
In addition, volunteers from the Munster office raised $5,100 during Three Floyds Brewery “Dark Lord Festival.” For the past four years, BMWC Constructors has taken advantage of the company’s close proximity to the brewery by selling parking spaces in the BMWC employee lot to raise funds for Lake Area United Way (LAUW).
BMWC Constructors employees Kristyn Loudermilk, Dan “Sticks” Stegvilas, and Beth Sciackitano organized a BMWC team of volunteers to run the special fundraiser this year. Kristyn and Sticks also managed the entire Lake Area United Way campaign at BMWC. Kristyn said, “BMWC is a strong supporter of United Way because our company values the communities where we work. When an event as large as Dark Lord Day is in our backyard, it just makes sense that we would donate the parking money back to our community. Each year, the event brings more people to Northwest Indiana, and for BMWC and United Way to have a presence at such a widespread event is a wonderful thing.”
BMWC Constructors supports United Way each year through corporate gifts, employee donations, special event fundraisers, and volunteering.
“Once again BMWC Constructors has demonstrated what it means for a business to ‘Live United’. BMWC takes pride in helping individuals and strengthening communities in partnership with United Way. They’ve developed and grown this fundraiser each year as a way to add to their other United Way donations, sponsorships, and volunteering. To make this particular fundraiser happen, their employees volunteer their own time on a Saturday, some of them all day long—and this year in the rain and cold! It’s an amazing and wonderful effort, which together with their other United Way activities has a real and lasting impact on our community,” said Lisa Daugherty, President of Lake Area United Way. “Thank you BMWC Constructors!”
These are great examples of employees working together to help the communities where we live and work.