More holiday cheer.
Kenworth employees earlier this month collected so much food for Northwest Harvest that they needed one of their trucks — a medium-duty T270 — to deliver the goods.
The bounty of nearly 7,500 pounds of food was collected by nine Kenworth food drive teams in a friendly competition and delivered to Northwest Harvest’s warehouse in Kent.
Northwest Harvest is a nonprofit food bank distributor operating statewide to supply a network of more than 350 food banks, meal programs and high-need schools. It provides more than 1.7 million meals every month to its network.
Kenworth is part of Paccar.

Construction giant Skanska earlier this month loaded up a pickup truck with toys to help out the Kiwanis Club with its toy drive on Vashon Island. Skanska is a sponsoring partner this year and is working with the Vashon Island School District.

Organizers of the annual toy drive expect to have enough donations to give three gifts of toys, clothes and other items to 225 children ranging from infants to teenagers.

Jolly good Skanska!

It’s been called one of the “8 big openings of 2012,” it’s right here in Tacoma and it’s happening this weekend. I’m talking about LeMay – America’s Car Museum.
Perhaps just as fascinating as the cars inside is the museum itself. Learn more about it in the DJC’s special section.

Some of the state’s top projects were showcased last night by the AGC of Washington during its 2012 Build Washington awards banquet in Seattle.

Advanced American Construction took home top honors in the construction category for its work on the John Day Lock and Dam gate and sheave replacement. Centennial Contractors Enterprises won the grand award for safety.

The DJC also held a Q-and-A session with John Hayduk of JTM Construction and  Dan Esparza of Sealaska Constructors.

Check out all 31 award winners in the DJC’s special section.

More than 100 Vashon Island kids got Christmas presents thanks to some busy elves at Skanska’s Seattle office.

Spearheaded by Skanska’s Community Involvement Committee, the contractor donated new toys through the Vashon Kiwanis Club.

Next, Skanska teamed with Fred Meyer and the AGC of Washington to donate about $10,000 worth of meals to 200 students of Seattle Vocational Institute. The meals included a 10-pound turkey, can of beans and a box of stuffing. Leftovers were taken by Farestart to bolster local food banks.
Jolly good, Skanska, AGC and Freddy’s!

Here’s some more holiday cheer: PCL Construction Services’ Seattle office donated $5,000 each to the Food Lifeline and Northwest Harvest food banks.
The local donation is part of a national effort by the contractor to fight hunger. If you add in donations from 13 other PCL district locations across the country, the total hits $140,000.
PCL says it has funded food banks for the last three years because buying in bulk can yield 5 to 15 pounds of food for every dollar donated. The total donated over three years is $438,000, providing about 1.3 million meals to those in need.
Cheers to PCL!

The bad: Some D-bags earlier this month stole about $4,000 worth of tools from Habitat for Humanity of East King County.
The tools were stored at Habitat’s La Fortuna construction site in Renton. The thieves cut the padlock on the jobsite gate and then drilled through a lock on a storage container to get to the tools, which included three circular saws, six nail guns, a drill and other items. They even took several spools of copper wire.
Volunteers said it had taken them several years to build up the tool supply and their productivity was threatened by the burglary.
The good: The construction industry, Bank of America and others stepped up to donate more than $15,000 in cash and $4,000 worth of tools. BofA and The Mosaic Co. each donated $4,000 while other donations came from Complete Concrete, PCL Construction, Genie Industries and Schnitzer Steel.
“It’s like the final scene from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ” said Habitat EKC Executive Director Tom Granger in a statement. “Thanks to the community’s generosity we will be able to replace all the tools that were stolen and we will put in a security system to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
That’s right.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is teaming with biology teacher Lee Ann Love on a pilot program for the student STEM club at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School. The program consists of six weekly modules that revolve around construction and engineering elements of Lewis’ renovation of Lincoln High that was finished in 2007.
Lewis engineers are working with the STEM students on real-world problems where math and engineering are used. The program helps students understand the complexity of systems and the interrelationship of all engineering disciplines. It focuses on structural, mechanical and electrical systems and how Building Information Modeling can help resolve conflicts before construction starts.
Company president Gary Smith is leading Lewis’ pilot program.
CEO Bill Lewis stepped up to personally pledge $125,000 to the Washington STEM program, where he serves on the board of directors. Washington STEM is a nonprofit promoting science, technology, engineering and math education.
Another $125,000 was pledged by the company and employees to various charities in honor of the company’s 125th anniversary.
Way to go Lewis team!

Lease Crutcher Lewis has set a lofty goal to celebrate its 125^th anniversary: raise $1,000 for every year it has been in business.

CEO Bill Lewis had this to say: “One of the founding principles of the company was community involvement. It’s clear to us that, while we have an incredibly talented group of folks who make great things happen every day, we’re not much without our community. A group of our people came up with the idea of charitable giving instead of a party as a more meaningful way to honor our years of success in the community.”

To get its employees on board, the company is giving an additional 25 percent match for their contributions made this year. That amounts to a 125 percent match, up to $500 per worker. So far, about 25 percent of the workforce has donated more than $15,000 under the program.

The company also sent donation cards to clients and community partners offering to donate money in their names.

The campaign is already approaching its goal: $95,958 has been donated at last glance. A running donation tally can be found at: http://www.lewisbuilds.com/125philanthropy

Some of the beneficiaries of the program are the YMCA of Greater Seattle, The Seattle Parks Foundation and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Excellent job!

Skanska, GLY Construction and others teamed up July 16 to renovate the Head Start building and Neighborhood House playground at Yesler Terrace in Seattle.

Brad Rock led Skanska’s team in painting the exterior of the building. Ski’s Painting and Sherwin-Williams donated labor and paint.

GLY installed playground equipment and helped McKinstry with some electrical wiring inside the building.

The contractors worked with more than 100 volunteers from local businesses and nonprofits, such as Swedish Medical Center, Seattle University and Virginia Mason.

The Head Start program provides free education to 40 preschoolers who live in Yesler Terrace.

Once again, kudos to the construction industry!