ESCA Leadership & Development Council Member McCarthy Building Companies Awards Grants to Children’s Cancer Network and Starbright Foundation

December 14, 2012

Home News ESCA Leadership & Development Council Member McCarthy Building Companies Awards Grants to Children’s Cancer Network and Starbright Foundation

A key goal of employee-owned companies is to create a culture of corporate responsibility. Inevitably, these same standards are reflected in the companies’ relationships with their community. McCarthy, a 100% employee-owned building company headquartered in St. Louis, MO, takes a vested interest in improving its community.

The McCarthy Heart Hats program is the company’s community outreach program.  The program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting, and recognizing McCarthy employee-owners’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes around the community.  In fact, a large portion of the Heart Hats program is driven by requests from individual employee-owners who have a personal interest in a charitable organization. McCarthy Heart Hats volunteers donate countless hours and monetary contributions to improve communities each year.

In recent weeks, the company’s Southwest Division awarded two grants and an in-kind project recipient through its Heart Hats community outreach program to two local charities, the Children’s Cancer Network and the Starbright Foundation. Each grant totaled $20,000.

The Children’s Cancer Network provides financial, educational and psychosocial support to children and families in Arizona who are dealing with childhood cancer. The organization strives to increase awareness of pediatric cancer research and the need to find a cure for cancer. The generous $20,000 Heart Hats grant will be used to fund the nonprofit’s various adopt-a-family programs –  including the back-to-school program that provides clothing, uniforms and school supplies to families battling cancer – as well as a program that provides beds, linens and pillows to those in need. The donation will also support the “Holiday Surprises” adopt-a-family program that helps to fulfill the wish lists of families identified by hospital social workers.

The Starbright Foundation rescues children in the Phoenix metro area from abusive situations, including minor sex trafficking and other dangerous and abusive environments. The Foundation will use its $20,000 grant to make necessary improvements, such as electrical work and smoke detector installations, at its local safe house for victims of child abuse.  Making these updates enables the nonprofit to increase its housing capacity for young victims in need of long-term counseling and care.

McCarthy explained why it chose the Children’s Cancer Network and the Starbright Foundation. “This year, our Heart Hats committee wanted to focus on nonprofits that support children and families in crisis,” said Lani Calbert, co-chair of the McCarthy Southwest Heart Hats committee. “After interviewing several organizations and reviewing dozens of grant applications, the Children’s Cancer Network and Starbright Foundation’s proposed projects stood out as providing the most impact to our community.”

In addition to these two remarkable grants, McCarthy also selected UMOM New Day Centers as the recipient of this year’s hands-on volunteer project. UMOM is the largest homeless shelter for families in the state of Arizona, providing shelter and supportive services for over 150 families.  McCarthy’s employee-owners volunteered to remove the outdated and unsafe playground structure and install a new playground for the nearly 90 children residing at UMOM’s Casa de Paz Fillmore. The project entails installing a new playground surface, painting the basketball court and ramada, installing a watering system, and planting new vegetation. The project is expected to begin in February.

Founded in 1864, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the nation’s 8th largest domestic builder. The company has branches across the nation including California, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Missouri and others.

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