TROY, N.Y. — More than 1,000 National Grid employees statewide were part of the company’s Day of Service.
Participating employees chose a place to spend the day volunteering and giving back to the community. Locally, more than 20 employees met at Frear Park for a day of outdoor work in partnership with the Frear Park Conservancy.
“We’ve got the best of what National Grid has to offer here today,” said Conservancy President and National Grid employee Brian Sano to the crowd of volunteers at the start of the day.
After going over the projects on the day’s to-do list, Sano asked the volunteers to split into groups and collect the tools they would need for their jobs. The volunteers soon dispersed to their work areas across the Park. The day’s work had been selected to take advantage of the various skill sets the volunteers brought to the table.
“We’ve struggled to get volunteers with COVID, so this is a huge opportunity for us,” Sano said. “We wanted to make sure there were projects that fit everyone’s comfort level. It’s all important work.”
Jobs included maintenance and upkeep of trail signs and a map kiosk, restoring sections of trails that had been damaged by erosion, building bog bridges to keep hikers safe through muddier parts of a trail, and cutting away overgrowth so trails could be more easily navigated. Sano periodically checked in at each work location, delivering supplies and answering questions.
National Grid’s Day of Service is part of the company’s “Project C,” an initiative designed to establish a community commitment. According to a recently published article, the goal of Project C is to:
• Connect our communities to clean and sustainable energy.
• Care for our neighborhoods and their revitalization.
• Compassionately address the challenges our customers face, including environmental justice and social equity.
• Create the workforce that will help build New York’s clean energy delivery system.
• Collaborate with our customers, community partners, stakeholders and so many others to deliver the clean, fair, resilient and affordable energy future.
As the volunteers worked together over the course of the day, another “C” became evident – camaraderie. Everyone was in good spirits as they built, dug, trimmed, and painted. They all had chosen Frear Park as their work site from a list of possible locations, so they were happy to be there.
“I drive by here every day, how could I not help out in my own backyard?” commented Deb Melsom. “I work from home, so this is also a good chance for me to get out and be around people.”
“I was thrilled to see the amount of people who wanted to be here today,” said Sano. “It’s not every day you get a big organization asking to help out.”
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” remarked Clare Dunn. “Someone came by while we were working on the trail signs and thanked us for our efforts.”
“It’s great to give back to the community,” added Dave Lammon.
Melsom felt that an important part of the Day of Service and Project C was the visibility it created.
“A lot of people think National Grid is this big, bad, evil corporation. We’re not – we’re just like you,” she commented. “It’s important that others see us doing this. Maybe they’ll be inspired to do it too. ”
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September 19, 2021 at 02:05AM
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National Grid employees volunteer at Frear Park for Day of Service - Troy Record
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