CannonDesign takes part in Community Impact Day 2024
July 12, 2024
Social Sharing
Our purpose at CannonDesign is to help people flourish, not only within our firm but also in our communities. Every year, we take a break from our daily work to collectively volunteer and make a positive impact. During this year's Community Impact Day, teammates worldwide partnered with local non-profits to amplify their efforts. Read on to discover how each office contributed to making a difference this year.
Ann Arbor
Our Blue Cottage of CannonDesign teammates up in Ann Arbor, MI put together 50 lunch bags for numerous shelters in the Detroit area. They partnered with the Food Gatherers’ Lunches with Love program.
Additionally, our Innovation Fellow, Ben Bassin, MD, and his family set up a lemonade, cookie, and bracelet-making stand in their neighborhood of Ann Arbor. All proceeds were sent to Hope Clinic to provide meals for the homeless and whole-person medical care for those unable to afford care.
Baltimore
Our Baltimore office divided and conquered two different projects. One team partnered with Friends of Herring Run Park to clean and restore the park, ensuring it remains a beautiful and accessible space for the community to enjoy. The second team volunteered at BE Transformed, an organization committed to supporting individuals in need by providing essential resources. Our volunteers sorted food and clothing, helping to organize supplies that will be distributed to community members facing hardship.
Boston
Teammates in the Boston office volunteered at Christopher’s Haven, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and comforting families with children undergoing cancer treatment. Our team brought new life to the space by painting the walls in bright, cheerful colors, aiming to create a joyful and uplifting environment for the children and their families.
Buffalo
Our Buffalo office took on four incredible projects within the city. The first group worked with Journey's End Refugee Services to clean an apartment that will be housing a family of nine.
The second group volunteered at The Tool Library, where they upcycled an old storm window into a marker board, filled toolboxes for refugee families moving into homes furnished by Journey's End, weeded a pocket park in front of the library and planted numerous native plants. To cap it all off, they donated $5,000 to The Tool Library as part of the Buffalo office’s “Of Our Communities” effort.
The third group packed health kits at the Pride Center of Western New York, which will be distributed across the Greater Buffalo community. The Pride Center is focused on creating a safe, healthy and enriching place for LGBTQ people to live in Western New York.
Lastly, team members volunteered with Red Jacket Riverfront Natural Habitat Park to pick up trash. They totaled more than 115 pounds of trash and more than 650 items.
Chicago
Our Chicago office arranged three volunteer opportunities within the city and the office. Within the office, they partnered with the Chicago Loop Alliance to assemble more than a 100 hygiene kits and 40 coloring packs for those experiencing homelessness or facing housing insecurity with social services. These kits provide individuals with functional products they would not have access to and help them feel connected, cared about, less isolated and more emotionally prepared to start each day.
The next group volunteered with Chicago Animal Care & Control (CACC), a local municipal animal shelter. Teammates put together frisbee pizza treats for dogs, cleaned water bowls, wiped down small cooldown pools in the outside kennels, built cat toys and provided much-needed love to the animals.
The last group visited the Feed My Starving Children organization, which distributes food to children in need across the globe. Our team packed and compiled 161 boxes, which accounts for 34,776 meals.
Dallas and Houston
Our Texas offices focused on food insecurity in the Texas region. In Dallas, they volunteered with two incredible organizations, North Texas Food Bank and City Square Food Bank. Our Houston teammates volunteered at the Houston Food Bank where they prepared nearly 9,500 pre-packed, healthy meals totaling 11,340 pounds.
Denver
Our Denver office participated in a trail maintenance day and helped to maintain and improve over four miles of trail network just west of Denver alongside the organization Jeffco Open Space. The team learned about native plants, trail use, water runoff and some of the history of the land before development.
Irvine, Los Angeles and San Diego
Our California offices kept themselves busy. In Los Angeles, a team volunteered at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank in South LA, where they sorted and packed nearly 10,000 pounds of produce to be distributed to over 700 food banks across the great LA area.
The Irvine office spent time at the Ronald McDonald House, a center that provides housing and care for sick children and their families. CannonDesign helped expand this building recently from 20 to 44 rooms.
In San Diego, the office volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and helped Habitat’s ReStore facility where all the items that go into these homes are accepted (via donations) prepared, stored, and finally sold for proceeds to support this amazing organization.
Mumbai
Our colleagues in Mumbai spent the day volunteering in the Primary School at St. Catherine Home, a beautiful old campus nestled amidst the bustling city of Mumbai. The campus houses schools for in-need children and an orphanage. Our team repaired damaged walls, repainted those severely affected by Mumbai's torrential rains and focused on creating a beautiful, welcoming entrance that brightens the kids’ days. To top it all off, the team had the opportunity to sponsor the education of a few children for an entire year.
New York City
The NYC office volunteered at Hawthorne Farm — a needed resource in the Newark community that ensures food is carefully grown then distributed to people and places who need it, including local farmer markets. Teammates weeded the garden, harvested kale and collards, picked up litter on the aligning street and rotated soil.
Some of our New York City and Philadelphia-based CannonDesign and Blue Cottage team members came together and used their creativity differently. The team decorated and personalized care packages for the Queens Family Justice Center which supports victims and survivors of domestic and gender-based violence.
Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh office partnered with the local NOMA Chapter to conduct a Project Pipeline workshop for the Boys and Girls Club as a part of Pittsburgh's Learn and Earn program. Project Pipeline volunteers and the CannonDesign team shared insight into the profession and helped the teens work through the ups and downs of using SketchUp Online to create 3D models.
Portland and Seattle
Our SRG + CannonDesign colleagues in the Pacific Northwest spent their day focused on two important projects. The Seattle team took to the Capitol Hill neighborhood to clean up, collecting 12 large bags of trash along the way.
The Portland team volunteered at the Children’s Book Bank repairing and cleaning children’s books. The organization accepts new and gently used book donations from the community, then asks volunteers to sort, clean and distribute the books through their various partners that support literacy development for underserved children and families.
Rochester
Some of our remote teammates in Rochester, NY, came together to volunteer at the local Ronald McDonald House. They cleaned and organized two family room spaces, rearranged the furniture, and donated four large bags of goods to the Penfield Ecumenical Food Shelf, the town’s food bank. Their efforts helped create a more welcoming environment for families and provided essential supplies to those in need.
St. Louis
Five incredible volunteer initiatives happened in our St. Louis office. The first was at Crisis Nursery, a non-profit organization that provides 24/7 daycare to kids aged 0-12 whose parents are in crises. The group sorted donations of food, clothing, diapers, wipes and more.
A second group worked with Nurses for Newborns where they did inventory for food and products, helped clean and move supplies, unpacked and restocked diapers and stuff folders for community outreach.
The third group worked with a Nature Reserve team through Forest Park Forever, cleaning up sections of the park and removing invasive species to help the park restore to what it looked like before.
A fourth group spent the morning cleaning and prepping apartments in various stages of completion with Bethel Hills, an organization that provides housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This included final cleaning and furnishing of one unit and removing drywall dust and construction debris from several others. Additionally, several areas outside were tended to including weeding, seeding and power washing.
The last group spent time with Seed St. Louis where they erected a greenhouse, watered trees and garden beds, cleaned out Sumner High School's raised beds, spread mulch around trees, assembled raised beds and uncovered a sidewalk.
Toronto
The Toronto office picked up garbage at Little Norway Park with the Ocean Wise group, helping to clean up the shoreline. Ocean Wise is a global conservation organization on a mission to build communities that take meaningful action to protect and restore oceans and lakes.
Washington D.C.
Our D.C. team played a pivotal role in the design and volunteer efforts for the 2024 AEC Cares Project, an organization that unites the architecture, engineering and construction industries for a day of service during the annual AIA Conference. In phase one, CannonDesign collaborated with other architecture firms to design and renovate the lower level of a residential property for REACH (Residential Empowerment Adolescent Community Home). This space will provide a temporary home for teen boys transitioning out of the detention system and undergoing rehabilitation.
For phase two, our teammates aligned their efforts with Community Impact Day to further enhance the property. They painted the reconstructed front stairs, added room numbers, installed hardware, performed paint touch-ups, and cleaned the space. These contributions helped create a supportive and welcoming environment for the young residents of REACH.
