Wearing “Sharing our Success” T-shirts, six Verizon employee volunteers and one family member spent Saturday morning of May 4 with Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) doing a beautification project at Northwest Recreation Center. The group, who gave a total of 28 hours of volunteer service, painted the metal fence along the side and back of the center, as well as the safety handrails along the stairs and next to the bridge that crosses over to the park. When they were finished, the beautification project lived up to the name of the paint color, “dynamic blue.”

The event was part of Verizon’s Earth Day celebrations and was initiated through the Sustainability Team and Christopher Lui, who first contacted KIB about a possible partnership. KIB also worked locally with Allison Thomas to coordinate the volunteer efforts. This was also a continuation of the partnership KIB enjoys with the Parks Department, specifically Northwest Supervisor Esther Esquivel and Parks Supervisor John Page, who helped with the planning and logistics.

KIB Board President Scott Wilson had this to say about the project: “It is very encouraging to see more and more companies like Verizon placing a high value on employee engagement in the community. The fact that these volunteers came here to Irving on their day off to give their time says a lot about the company and its people, and we at KIB are very appreciative.”

Keep Irving Beautiful is a non-profit, grassroots, leadership organization dedicated to educating our community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification in order to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of our city. As an award winning affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, Keep Irving Beautiful reaches out to and partners with all sectors of our City including government, business, church, cultural, educational, neighborhood and civic organizations.  If you would like to participate in a service project similar to this one, please go to the KIB website or call the KIB office at 972-721-2175.