Alcoa’s monthly “Day of Caring” is an incredible example of how corporations can have impactful investments in their community while bonding as a group at a volunteer opportunity.

Recently, Alco Intalco Plant had a presentation on their volunteer experiences, ten in total! Entertaining descriptions to follow:

1. Several employees, running on the sugar energy from 24 donuts,  worked on the yard of a house that was sponsored by Kulshan Community Land Trust. They were asked to do landcaping and went above and beyond by laying a new stone patio and building a bench as well.

2. On September 20, Alcoa employees stepped off there campus and onto the beaches to pick up litter with RE Sources for Sustainable Communities. They gathered 350 lbs of garbage, which included 404 cigarette butts and one bag of whale blubber. ew.

3. Bellingham Technical College’s  grounds behind the Family Learning Center were cleaned up, hundreds of Daffodils were planted and a manager who has never weeded in his life now has had the experience of weeding.

4. 15 people got to “play with lightning” as their reward for helping the American Museum of Radio and Electricity organize hundreds of vacuum tubes, paint, rip wallpaper. This volunteer experience helped them “turn into little kids” as they helped out.

5. With the attitude of “we can fix that” as engineers, they assisted the Mount Baker Red Cross in landscaping and removing a cumbersome fence that was thought to be unremovable.

6. Ferndale Boys & Girls Club presented them with a challenge that they had to meet based on the sheer principle of having a challenge. They were able to drive a scissor-lift (which was taller than the door) through a church to replace light bulbs. When they were done, they were able to “stand back and think, wow, it’s a lot brighter.”

7. Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association had a good time hosting a work party with the energetic Alcoa employees. They worked 50 trees and maintained 800 plants from previous Alcoa work parties!

8. A touching story was told when a Habitat for Humanity house was worked on by Alcoa families. An 8-year-old boy diligently helped out amongst going back and forth to a soccer game. The next week he told his class about it at school, and after he had excitedly described the project he worked on, a girl in his class realized that was the house her family was going to move into. Wow.

9. Volunteer Chore Program spread an Alcoa group out at four different work sites helping low-income seniors and adults with disabilities: four in one day! They were happy to help and it made them smile to see their HR manager and plant manager hard at work on such a rainy day.

10. Ferndale Friendship Community Garden gained 1,104 lbs of food for Ferndale Food Bank, senior centers, and other organizations through the help that Alcoa has given on several different work party occasions.

Ten projects, all incredible in scope, enrich the community and the Alcoa employees. All were proud to tell their story, and Whatcom Volunteer Center is proud of our community and businesses in the area for stepping up.