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March 10, 2025
GREEN BAY – Each year, the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Wisconsin presents awards in a variety of categories.
One of them is the Community Service Award, which is given to individuals within their membership who have distinguished themselves by making exemplary contributions to their community above and beyond the normal course of business.
Aubrey Lewis-Byers, insulation division manager at Hurckman Mechanical, is one of the 2024 winners.
The 44-year-old said he has been with Hurckman for nearly 11-and-a-half years, where he specializes in pricing commercial/industrial insulation jobs.
Though he absolutely loves his work, Lewis-Byers said it’s not the job he anticipated upon graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2004 with a degree in occupational and environmental health & safety.
While attending school, he said he thought he would work with OSHA, making sure everything was up to federal standards, but he couldn’t find a job.
So, for the first 10 years out of college, Lewis-Byers said he worked in a call center – four years as a rep, then six as a supervisor.
“I loved what I was doing back then, but I love this more,” he said. “These days, I’m on the other side of things where we have to make sure that we’re performing to OSHA standards, rather than me being part of making sure that people are up to those standards.”
When not at work, Lewis-Byers said he devotes much of his time to the Brothers Breakfast Foundation – a nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth and promoting diversity in leadership.
In that voluntary role, he said he, along with the groups’ six other members, provides mentoring, essential services and inspiration to young people, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds.
Lewis-Byers said the foundation got its start in 2014, when two of his friends – Travis Lange and Chris Walls – started meeting for breakfast once a month to discuss the various things going on in their lives, good and bad.
Lewis-Byers said he began attending their breakfasts in 2016.
“It really started with us just trying to be there for each other,” he said. “If one was struggling with a relationship or something else in life, we talked about how we could help or what kind of guidance we could offer – that kind of thing.”
Around 2018, Lewis-Byers said they decided to open the meetings up to more men and began looking at their networks and inviting potential members to join them.
“We were still trying to help each other navigate this crazy world we live in, but it was important to us to do something more than just trying to help each other,” he said.
In October 2019, Lewis-Byers said the group decided to support the community beyond themselves.
“The group has changed – it isn’t what it was when we started – but the change was necessary, because it’s important to us to have strong Black men in the community be a part of this group,” he said. “We feel it’s important to show that there are good African American men in this community and this country who are willing to help and to give back.”
It started with 25 turkeys
The group’s first initiative, Lewis-Byers said, was a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway for 25 people who would most benefit from the provided meal – but they had to work quickly since the holiday was only about a month away.
Dedicated to making it happen, he said they bought 25 turkeys, the tins to cook them in, macaroni and cheese, stuffing and pumpkin pie.
“I’m very proud of us for being able to put that together in such a short period of time,” he said. “Especially since we’re all employed full-time and have families.”
Lewis-Byers said the turkey giveaway has grown a lot in the now six years they’ve offered the meals – so much so that last Thanksgiving, the group gave away 140 turkeys.
With all years combined, Lewis-Byers said the foundation has given away more than 352 turkeys paired with the sides.
The amount of “sides” they give away, he said, has grown over the years, too, with this past year also including a gallon of milk, potato chips and either shredded cheese or a block of cheese.
“The potato chips don’t necessarily go with Thanksgiving, but it’s something we were able to add to what we’re giving people,” he said. “And Chris works for Schreiber Foods and was able to get Schreiber to donate the cheese. It’s consistently grown every year, so we’re able to give back more to the community.”
Lewis-Byers said the foundation finds many of the families for the turkey giveaways via Facebook and other social media sites, as well as through word-of-mouth and self-promotion.
“If we see someone who looks like they might be in need, we tell them who we are and what we do, and we give them our website address (brothersbreakfastfoundation.com) and let them know to reach out if they’re interested or in need,” he said.
Though the Brothers Breakfast Foundation is comprised of all African American men, Lewis-Byers said they help people regardless of race or other factors, especially for their turkey giveaway.
“We’ve had some Native Americans, African Americans, White people, Hispanic people, it really doesn’t matter,” he said. “If you need help, we’re willing to help. The group is African American men, but we want to help whoever needs help in the community.”
Lewis-Byers said the foundation is also involved in putting together and distributing a back-to-school backpack giveaway, which includes backpacks, notebooks, folders, pens and pencils, as well as haircuts to children to help ensure they start the academic year with confidence and on the right foot.
Since starting the backpack giveaway, Lewis-Byers said the foundation has given away more than 400 backpacks with school supplies.
And though Brothers Breakfast Foundation has its own initiatives, he said the group also commits to other organizations’ causes.
For example, Lewis-Byers said it helps the Boys & Girls Club of Green Bay multiple times a year, and as of last December, the foundation began volunteering at Paul’s Pantry – something it plans to do quarterly.
Working in construction, he said he also helps to promote careers in his trade whenever he can.
All of these efforts were highlighted in AGC’s recognition of Lewis-Byers, which stated: “Through his multi-faceted approach to community service, Aubrey Lewis-Byers is actively supporting and uplifting the Greater Green Bay community, making him a deserving winner of the 2024 Community Service Award.”
Hurckman President Jake Warden said Aubrey is not only “an outstanding employee at HMI,” but he is also a “true advocate for the community.”
“His involvement with the Brothers Breakfast Foundation and their backpack and turkey giveaways show his big heart,” Warden said. “We could not be prouder to have him on our team.”
Mentoring local youth, community support
Mentoring is another part of the Brothers Breakfast Foundation, and Lewis-Byers said though it’s not quite to the level they want it to be yet, he feels they’re heading in the right direction.
“I would say we’ve mentored about 15 youths so far, ranging in age from 10 to 15 years old,” he said.
Lewis-Byers said one of the foundation’s goals for this summer is to bring in 20-30 high school-age kids to teach them how to be kind, responsible people – no matter what life has thrown their way.
“It’s about saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ and looking people in the eye when you’re speaking to them,” he said. “We also want to help teach them how to write a resume and explain to them what we do as grown-ups in the businesses we work for.”
Lewis-Byers said a lot of the mentoring happens through basketball, as well – a sport he and Walls each played in college.
“We host basketball camps where we get these youths in the gym for basketball, but there’s a reflection moment of things being bigger than just basketball – things like being on time, being a team player, being accountable and responsible for your actions, and so on,” he said. “Those things are important in basketball, but they are even more important in other aspects of life. We’re just able to teach them those lessons through the fun of basketball.”
When it has the ability, Lewis-Byers said the foundation is always looking to offer community support, extending efforts to help anyone who needs help.
“For example, we recently had a call from a business who told us about a guy they knew who’d been living in his car, and they were trying to help him get a job,” he said. “They asked if there was anything we could do to help them help him. We (bought) him a bunch of hygiene products, some shirts and a hotel for three days. He ended up getting a job as a truck driver and his new company got him a hotel for another two weeks. When he got his first paycheck, he was able to get a place of his own to live.”
Lewis-Byers said it’s been rewarding to see how several people pitching in a little can add up to a huge difference.
He said the group had another opportunity to help recently, as well, when it extended a small loan to someone in a financial pinch.
“We didn’t make the loan expecting to get it back,” he said. “If we do, that’ll be awesome, but we didn’t do it with the expectation of getting it back. It’s about someone being in need and us having the ability to help them.”
The current organization
Lewis-Byers said he is the current vice-president of the Brothers Breakfast Foundation, Walls is the president and Lange is the treasurer.
“We’ll stay in our roles for three years, and the hope is that we’ll have guys who stay committed who can then step up and take on more of these leadership roles, which will also teach them responsibility and being accountable,” he said. “We’ll still remain involved, but we want the other guys with us to grow as well.”
Whatever size the group is and no matter how many groups there may be in other communities, Lewis-Byers said Brothers Breakfast Foundation plans to remain a group comprised of African American men.
“I know it could be walking a fine line, with others accusing us… of not being inclusive,” he said. “We want to be inclusive, but how it started was with a few African American men who wanted to show that we take care of our responsibilities, that we can give back and that we are here to help. We want to paint a positive picture of African American men despite how we’re so often portrayed in mainstream media. But, if I had to break down the families we’re helping with our turkey giveaways, it’s probably 60% White families who get turkeys each year; 30%-or-so Black families; and 10% Native American. So, it’s not like we’re exclusively helping only Blacks. We’re just an organization whose makeup is Black.”
The next level
Lewis-Byers said the Brothers Breakfast Foundation hopes to keep the group on the smaller side, ideally never growing to more than 20 members.
“We want to be able to grow in other areas,” he said. “There’s two guys in Milwaukee – one’s a good friend of mine and one’s a good friend of Chris. They’ve seen everything that we’re doing and want to start a chapter down there. That’s more of the kind of growth that we’re hoping to do rather than just growing what we have here.”
Lewis-Byers said he also wants to spread his message: “If you have the ability to help someone, do it.”
“If you have a few free moments to talk with someone who may be in need, do it,” he said. “We’re all in need in one way or another. Our communities and this earth are bigger than just me or you.”
