The Volunteer Work of Alcoa Employees - Already Five Years of Commitment!
Highlights: - The Alcoa team accomplished seven volunteer projects in Canada during the last weekend alone, including building urban agriculture containers in the Montréal region. - 2,200 Canadian employees will dedicate concrete actions to their communities during the 5th Month of Service. - In 5 years, a total of 200,000 hours and 150 volunteer projects have been realized, along with thousands of dollars collected by Alcoa employees for various causes.
MONTREAL, Oct. 4 /CNW Telbec/ - Yesterday, about 40 employees and their families, as well as Alcoa Canada partners from the Montréal region, joined forces with the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre and the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal (OMHM) to build 300 urban agriculture containers for use in low rent housing projects (HLMs).
The activity was an opportunity for people from the Alcoa Canada head office in Montréal, as well as from subsidiaries Kawneer (Pointe-Claire) and Alcoa Cast Products (Laval) to work together for the well-being of the community. Over the past weekend, six other volunteer projects were realized in Canada, allowing for seven organizations to benefit from over 800 volunteer hours-the equivalent of 100 days of commitment. This collective initiative marks the beginning of the 5th edition of Alcoa's Worldwide Month of Service, which takes place until the 31st of October in 10 Canadian communities where Alcoa operations are located.
"Urban agriculture containers built by the Alcoa team from recycled materials will be distributed to the residents during our interventions in different low-rent housing greening projects on the Island of Montréal" explains Saleema Hutchinson, Education and Citizenship Project Manager at the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre. These garden project interventions are part of the La ville en vert (Green City) initiative, partially funded by Québec Government's Green Fund and aiming at the reduction of urban heat islands. This volunteer activity also supports OMHM's 2010-2014 Sustainability Action Plan, which aims to encourage urban gardening and greening projects. According to Nicolas Joly, Director, Sustainability at the OMHM, "these containers, which will be distributed free of charge, will support our tenants in their greening efforts toward the embellishment of the housing projects and encourage a greater participation in the Montréal Low-Rent Housing Les Pouces Verts (Green Thumbs) contest."
A month of October brimming with action!
For the first time this year, there will be more community activities in the October agenda than there are days in the month. Over 2,200 employees, or 54% of the personnel, will support about 50 organizations via various community activities: participation to the Semaine québécoise de reduction des déchets, volunteer projects, fund-raising campaigns, rummage collection for people in need, etc. Pierre Morin, President, Alcoa Canada tells us: "The Montréal activity and the ones realized during the month of October a mere reflection of all we have accomplished over the past year and before that. We want to put the emphasis on all the work that has been accomplished, often behind the scenes, by these modest and humble people: our volunteers. Thank you for your involvement!"
Already Five Years of Commitment!
With 150 ACTION(1) programs accomplished by the employees and over 2,000 BRAVO!(2) contributions granted to almost 200 organizations since 2006, this commitment represents 200,000 volunteer hours and more than one million dollars attributed as donations. To that, we can add the thousands of dollars collected for United Way and Opération Enfant Soleil as well as all the lives saved due to the blood donor clinics held in our plants. "Building a better world begins with each one of us in our communities, and our people have been doing this successfully for more than five years now. Their commitment is a solid example of sustainable development and a model for future generations", concludes Pierre Morin.
For further information on the Alcoa Foundation, visit the Community section of the website www.alcoa.com/canada.
ABOUT ALCOA FOUNDATION
Alcoa Foundation is one of the largest corporate foundations in the U.S., with assets of approximately US $420 million. In addition to addressing local needs in communities where Alcoa operates, Alcoa Foundation is focused on promoting environmental stewardship, enabling economic and social sustainability, and preparing tomorrow's leaders through education and learning. Alcoa Foundation was founded more than 50 years ago and has invested more than US $515 million since 1952. The work of Alcoa Foundation is further enhanced by Alcoa's thousands of employee volunteers, who in 2009 gave over 650,000 service hours. Through the company's signature Month of Service (October) program, Alcoa employees share their energy, passion and purpose to make a difference in our communities. In 2009, a record 37 percent of Alcoans took part in 795 Month of Service events across 23 countries. Among the many projects we initiated, our volunteer efforts helped 29,000 children and benefited more than 400 schools.
------------------------
(1) The ACTION program-for Alcoans Coming Together In Our Neighborhoods- recognizes the work of employees who join efforts to accomplish projects directly in the community. Non-profit organizations not only benefit from the work of the volunteers, they also receive a financial contribution of $3,000 from Alcoa. (2) The BRAVO! program recognizes the work of employees who devote at least 50 hours per year to a nonprofit organization. It does so by granting to this organization $250 per participating employee.
For further information on the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre: www.urbanecology.net
For further information on the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal (OMHM): www.omhm.qc.ca
/NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A photo accompanying this release is available at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited members of the media/
For further information: Pascoal Gomes, Communications Advisor, Montréal Urban Ecology Centre, 514 282-8378, ext. 228, Mobile: 514 998-8374; Louise Hébert, Communications Director, Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal, 514 872-8322; Source: Lysane Martel, Director, Communication and Public Affairs, Director, Alcoa Foundation in Canada, 514 906-2537
Share this article