A Season of Giving Back

From CANstruction creations to charity walks, food drives to angel trees and gingerbread houses, our PEople have been out in force this season, raising money to find cures, feeding those in need, and wrapping gifts so every kid gets a visit from Santa. Our scrapbook below shows what we’ve been up to.

HOLIDAY GIVING

Our New York City studio continued a tradition called “Perkins Eastman Elves—Holiday Book Drive for Kids.” The studio buys and donates books to kindergarteners at the DREAM Charter Schools (both the East Harlem and Mott Haven campuses) and first and second graders at Harlem Academy.

The toy drive our Dallas studio held was a huge success this year, providing gifts for children in need through the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center.

Above, left to right:
Members of the Costa Mesa, CA, studio supported seven local families for Thanksgiving this year with gift cards for a turkey and grocery bags filled with stuffing, green beans, corn, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, and pie, oh my!

In the spirit of the season, the Stamford studio donated gift cards for holiday distribution by the Department of Child and Family of Fairfield County in Connecticut.

The staff at BLTa—A Perkins Eastman Studio in Philadelphia packed dozens of boxes with food to send to Philabundance, the local area food bank, for Thanksgiving.

DC’s Culture Club participated in this year’s ACE DC Gingerbread Design & Build Competition, a fundraiser for the DC affiliate of the ACE Mentor Program of America. The program is a supplementary education program designed to introduce high school students to careers in the architecture, construction, and engineering industries. All proceeds, from both voting and registration fees, will be used to fund ACE mentor scholarships and programming along with education supplies. Our team had a lot of fun building—while also building ACE futures.

Above, left to right:
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School—complete with geothermal wells—submitted as one of our firm’s projects.
Chichen Itza was entered as an international monument.
A DC Townhome was submitted as a sweet house of the future.

The Chicago studio participated in J+J Flooring’s Helping Hands event each year, which aims to brighten kids’ rooms at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Our team created an Encanto-themed tree to send to the young patients.

To celebrate the holidays, Pfeiffer—A Perkins Eastman Studio had fun decorating and donating three Christmas trees for patients at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles CHLA.

CANSTRUCTION

Four studios put their imaginations and building chops to work for their local CANstruction competitions, which raise money and donate food to local shelters from the cans used in all the entries.

Above, left to right:
Charlotte: Towering at over eight feet, the “Monster Meal” created by a team from our Charlotte studio provided more than 1,700 cans of food to those in need. They took home the “Best Structural Ingenuity Award” for their 3D build with Frankenstein’s hands coming out in front of his head simulating his iconic walk.

Costa Mesa: The team from our Costa Mesa studio in California kicked things off earlier this fall. They delivered an optimistic message with their “Peace CAN Be Achieved” structure featuring an American flag on one side, a Ukrainian flag on the other, and a peace sign on each.

Above, left to right:
New York: Our New York studio received a special award for 25 years of participation at the CANstruction New York Awards Ceremony held November 9th. Their “CAN-O-ASIS” build this year is based on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. Just as each leg of the dome supports the whole, it is up to all of us to solve the challenge of food insecurity.

Pittsburgh: The Pittsburgh team won awards for “Best Use of Labels” and “Most Cans” with their “Hunger CAN take a Hike! The Outdoors are for Everyone” sculpture. Take a break and step into the wild. This structure was built with 2,900 cans of food.

WALKING THE WALK

Staying fit is one thing, but walking to raise money for a cause is so much better! Our studios participated in walks to end Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, and breast cancer:

Above, left-right:
Chicago: This year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s took us to Hyde Park! Our team explored the neighborhood and raised over $3,300 for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research.

Charlotte: Our “Perkins Eastman Memories Sustain You” team walked and raised funds to honor a team member’s mother this year on a beautiful October morning.

Above, left-right:
Washington, DC: Supporting a cause dear to our hearts, we raised more than $2,500 this year to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research.

Pittsburgh: Some of our Perkins Eastman crew at the Making Strides Walk to raise money to support breast cancer research and services through the American Cancer Society.

Perhaps the most special event was for a colleague, Jay Epstein, who suffers from ALS. He and his wife, Corrine, formed a team which included a large number of Perkins Eastman colleagues who participated in the annual Walk to Defeat ALS on New York’s Long Island this fall.

In his post-walk note to the team, Jay wrote,

Dear Team Jay Donors: While many of you were unable to attend last week’s Walk, every last one of you made the day very special for me and my family! A big congratulations to all for helping us land among the top fundraising teams with a total of $25,823! Your generosity and support for this worthy cause has been overwhelming.