Schools

Google Paints? Company Employees Give Back Through Service

More than 300 employees helped paint, clean and move furniture at Stevenson Pact today.

Red and yellow paint went on walls, ceilings and trim at school today. Some even got on  employees.

As part of the Mountain View-based Google's annual service initiative, GoogleServe, more than 300 volunteers descended upon two elementary schools today–Stevenson and Theuerkauf–to help prepare the buildings for the following school year. The effort saved the time and between $5,000 and $6,000 in paint and supplies.

"This would have taken three to four weeks," said Jim McCloskey, a member of the district's facilities team, who explained that in addition to painting the volunteers, cleaned classrooms, windows, wiped down walls and moved furniture. "This frees up our time to do other things."

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This past week throughout the Bay Area, GoogleServe has about 3,000 employees volunteering their time in about 86 projects, according to Lou Reda, executive director of the non-profit organization Hands On Bay Area. HOBA helped coordinate and connect Google to MVWSD.

Principal Angela Lyon beamed with excitement at all the activity at her school.

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"We are so grateful to have Google employees volunteering here," Lyon said. She added that the school has only been at this site for two years and each year they grow by two classroom sizes. Next year 310 students will benefit from this effort. "It's amazing."

Mountain View resident and one of the project leaders for GoogleServe at Stevenson, Cady Kollen, shared how great the experience had been for her both professionally and personally.

"Being here today with my organization and co-workers was very exciting," said the employee of the global advertising and global marketing team at Google. "With all of these people you can see results fast."

Kollen added that as a local, she can appreciate how this effort continued to build the neighborly relationship between the city and the company.

"The community supports Google being here and at the same time it's nice to see Google give back and support," she said. "As a Mountain View resident I think it's cool."

Kollen's and her co-worker's energy, attitude and impact came through in the few hours they volunteered at Stevenson PACT. At least, it looked apparent to the district team.

"It's great watching all of these young people do this," said Jim Hansen, also with MVWSD facilities. "Their hearts are in this."


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