Volunteering & Community

Smithtown has gotten just a little bit "greener" thanks to one local student.

Recently, 17-year-old Justin McArdle, a soon-to-be a senior at Smithtown High School East started a recycling project involving several schools in the district.

Sappi’s shared service center in South Portland Maine has implemented a program that collects the office’s organic solid waste on-site, adding a compost container to complement the existing single-stream recycling and landfill waste containers.

Xylem colleagues toured one of YES Prep Schools facilities in Houston, TX last week in celebration of the completion of a new school building. Xylem Watermark donated to YES Prep to support building classrooms in response to the devastation from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Xylem also participated in water monitoring educational events at the time, adding to its efforts to solve water and educate youth about water issues. YES Prep School is committed to providing students in underserved communities access to superior educational opportunities, and Xylem is proud to support this effort.

Skills-based volunteering is one of those loosely defined areas of our practice that can sometimes confuse people. I have spoken to several practitioners about their definition of skills-based volunteering and the answers are all over the map. It made me think that if we’re going to advance this practice, we’d better agree on some basics.

General Motors' Toledo Transmission plant was recently recognized for excellence in environmental stewardship by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This year, the plant was awarded the Platinum Level – the highest-level award from Ohio EPA’s Encouraging Environmental Excellence Program (E3) – making General Motors one of five organizations to receive this recognition this year.

AEG’s LA Kings and Blue Shield of California teamed up to host a Halloween Party at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House on Tuesday, October 30. Throughout the afternoon, volunteers from the Kings and Blue Shield of California – including LA Kings center Nate Thompson and his wife Sydney – prepared and distributed gift bags, decorated cookies with guests, led Halloween-themed arts and crafts and played a lively game of ball hockey.

The innovative change-makers in charge of PayPal's giving and volunteering program were eager to engage more employees across their global workforce. They knew their program had the potential for even more social impact, and they wanted to support their people's passions for environmental sustainability. See how they engaged more employees globally and saw tangible results in their sustainability efforts.

Lockheed Martin employees participated in dozens of volunteer events in communities around the world this October as part of the company’s annual “Month of Giving.” These “Be the Difference” days highlight employees’ commitment to service and giving back.

After earthquakes devastated Turkey in 2011, communities began preparing for when – not if – the next disaster would strike. Learn more about how The UPS Foundation, World Economic Forum, Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation are working to bolster resilience among small business in Turkey.

For Kite’s Week of Service, employees spent the day decorating for Halloween with local chapters of Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Santa Monica and Venice, which offer programs to inspire young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.