Balfour Beatty Demonstrates Commitment to Education By Giving Back

It’s incredible what can happen when individuals and organizations unite under a common purpose, as the team from Balfour Beatty has demonstrated this time and again in their support and sponsorship of Sharefest projects.

Driven by their desire to make an impact in local communities, Balfour Beatty once again hosted the annual Golf Tournament this spring to raise funds in support of projects for the 2017 Sharefest Workday, as well as student scholarships. This year, more than 140 individuals attended the tournament and helped raise $135,770 to sponsor seven Workday sites, send over 230 low-income students to camp and provide five college scholarships to local deserving students.

In addition, the Balfour Beatty team mobilized volunteers to serve at the sites they sponsored during Workday. Their staff is passionate about helping improve schools to give youth quality, beautiful campuses in which to learn.

“I think it’s extremely important that our employees have a culture of giving back and supporting communities that support us,” said John Bernardy, Senior Vice President at Balfour Beatty.

Toward this effort, more than 40 Balfour Beatty employees volunteered their time on May 6 to help with projects at Beryl Heights Elementary School, Juan de Anza Elementary School, Tulita Elementary School, Adams Middle School, Magruder Middle School, Culver City High School, and Redondo Union High School. Working alongside the schools and other Sharefest volunteers, they helped provide construction, painting, landscaping, cleaning, and more. The combined efforts provided more than $80,000 in improvements across these seven schools.

“We do so much within the community within our regular job that we do with the contractors, but Sharefest is about so much more than that,” said Ray Purcell, Senior Superintendent at Balfour Beatty. “[It’s about] everyARTICLE BODY: there, hand in hand, side by side, just doing construction work together and doing things that we can build great relationships that will last a lifetime.”

Beyond Workday, Balfour Beatty extends their commitment to education by using the remaining money raised at the Golf Tournament to support students attending Sharefest’s Summer Youth Development Academy for middle and high school youth. Additionally, they gave a total $5,000 in scholarships for local graduating seniors who demonstrate strong academic performance, service to the community, leadership, teamwork, responsibility, and integrity. Their hope is that these students will go on to college and become leaders who will bring positive impact to their own communities. This year’s scholarship recipients included Jason Zeidman from Culver City Unified School District, Stephen Gee from Torrance Unified School District, Celine Casillas and Malek Jesri from Wiseburn School District, and Matt Mercier (attending UC Berkeley) from Redondo Beach Unified School District.

“We are so proud of these students and the impact they are already having on their communities, and are incredibly grateful to the team at Balfour Beatty for encouraging and supporting their dreams of attending college,” said Chad Mayer. “Balfour Beatty has once again surpassed expectations in their efforts to give back to our schools. Their generosity, from Golf Tournament to the volunteers who served on Workday to helping send kids to our summer camp to these student scholarships, helps transform lives,” said Chad Mayer, Sharefest Executive Director.

Since 2010, Balfour Beatty has: