Fostering conversations around statewide childcare crisis
Making a difference
January 9, 2024
APPLETON – “A building starts with a solid foundation – the community has to as well.”
That, Kerry Arndt, director of marketing at Consolidated Construction Co. (CCC), said is what has motivated the Appleton-based construction company to give back to its community in multiple different facets over the years.
“We want communities to be healthy,” she said. “It makes us healthy. It makes our families healthy. It makes where we live healthy.”
Arndt said CCC has supported a variety of organizations and causes, such as Adopt A Family, Habitat for Humanity and Make a Wish and has even created its own initiative – Consolidated for a Cause – as another way to give back to the community.
The core of supporting charitable causes, she said, needs to start internally with CCC’s team – hence why the company started Everyone is an Ambassador in 2019.
Company-created initiatives
While the construction company’s volunteer efforts started before 2019, Arndt said starting the Everyone is an Ambassador program has allowed employees to become even better stewards of their community, and show them the importance of giving back.
“What we’ve imparted with all of our employees and shareholders is that everyone is the face of the company,” she said. “The company isn’t just this faceless thing – it’s a collection of people.”
And, while people have jobs, Arndt said “people also have lives outside of their jobs, too.”
“They’re also part of the communities that they are making a difference in,” she said.
Through the Everyone is an Ambassador program, Arndt said employees are trained on how what they do every day – both on the job and not on the job – is a reflection of the company.
And, since community involvement is a key element to CCC, Arndt said the company has worked to encourage and make volunteering more accessible for its team.
“We instituted paid volunteer time off for everyone,” she said. “Everyone gets eight hours a year of time off to volunteer. That’s become part of our culture and part of our policy.”
Arndt said employees have “quite a bit of latitude on the organizations they support,” but since starting its charitable giving program in 2018 – in which the company designates 1% of the prior fiscal year to charitable causes – she said there are three main areas of need that the company has focused on: youth, veterans and families in crisis.
The causes are reevaluated every five years, Michelle Rueckl, director of human resources said, which means the company will review the main areas of need it is supporting.
“Those were the three causes (CCC) felt the strongest about and have already done some work with,” she said. “But ultimately, we feel those causes do impact so many people… they hit enough that we can spread (the support) pretty wide and make it relatable for everybody that’s here.”
Through Consolidated for a Cause, an initiative the construction company’s employee growth and development committee started in 2021 at an all-employee meeting to help raise money for a charitable cause – Rueckl said employees can submit causes they support and why they support them.
Because, she said, it’s important to note that giving money is one thing, “but when you can attach to the heartstrings, you’re going to then get people’s time.”
“It’s about making sure that there is a connection both for what our employees believe in and how we can be seen as an organization,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s just people getting out into the community, wherever that may be.”
For each annual all-employee meeting, Arndt said each department puts together a basket for a silent auction to raise money for an organization or cause.
2021’s funds raised went to Harbor House, an organization that provides programming and services to victims of domestic abuse, while 2022’s funds went toward prostate and breast cancer research.
On top of the silent auction, Arndt said previous meetings have included a bake sale and a chili dump to raise additional funds.
“(In 2022), the original goal was to raise $2,500 – we raised $5,500,” she said. “And then the company matched $2,500, so the total that we raised was more than $8,000.”
Rueckl said CCC has not yet decided where the fundraising for the all-employee meeting in March will be donated to, but it is in the works.
The Consolidated for a Cause initiative, Arndt said, has also taken on different forms – such as the Consolidated for a Cause: A Cup of Thanks – a pop-up coffee drive thru the company hosted at its Appleton location on Veterans Day.
For Veterans Day last year, CCC hosted a pop-up drive-thru where the team provided free coffee to veterans as a thank you for their service. Photo Courtesy of CCC
CCC team members provided free coffee from Copper Rock to veterans.
“And then, for those who aren’t veterans, they could have a cup of coffee and (then) we asked for a donation to the DAV (Disabled American Veterans),” she said.
Adopt A Family, Habitat for Humanity
Though CCC started its charitable giving program back in 2018 and Consolidated for a Cause in 2021, Arndt said the company has been giving back to its community for years before.
A prime example, she said, was in 2015, when one employee’s desire to donate to the Adopt A Family campaign – a cause in which people can donate items to families in need – became a team ordeal.
“(Adopt A Family) started with one employee who had a passion for it and wanted to get things rolling with it,” she said. “So, she took on the actual organizing of it, reaching out to the Salvation Army and getting the families picked, and then also took it upon herself to do some shopping as well, for those of us who wanted to just contribute cash.”
Since starting to donate to Adopt A Family in 2015, Arndt said the CCC team has helped a total of 173 people.
Another organization CCC has supported has also given some employees the chance to use their construction skills to help better the community.
“We are supporting Habitat for Humanity with builds,” Arndt said. “That’s related directly to our skills.”
Sophia’s playhouse
In the fall of 2022, Arndt said she received a phone call from Make a Wish with an opportunity for the CCC team to help change a child’s life.
Sophia, Arndt said, was diagnosed with liver disease at a young age, which required a liver transplant.
Because the medications the 10-year-old was on post-surgery increased her risk of skin cancer, Arndt said she was unable to play outside.
“She wanted a playhouse… this really cute white playhouse with a cupola on the top,” she said. “We took that on with the intent that it would be done in the spring.”
Over the winter, Arndt said architects designed the playhouse based on Sophia’s vision, and a project manager at CCC took the lead on reaching out to vendors and suppliers to get as many of the items donated for the playhouse as possible.
“We were given a budget (from) Make a Wish, and we wanted to make that go as far as possible,” she said. “They weren’t expecting us to even finish the inside – but we did.”
Rueckl said “everybody stepped up” to help make Sophia’s wishes a reality.
“I don’t have a building bone in my body, and I was still able to go and help with Sophia’s playhouse,” she said.
After Sophia’s liver transplant, she was at greater risk of skin cancer, meaning she couldn’t play out in the sun. When Make a Wish reached out to Kerry Arndt at CCC about building a playhouse for Sophia, Arndt said the team came together to fulfill Sophia’s wish. Photo Courtesy of CCC
In April of 2023, the CCC team held a public ribbon cutting for Sophia’s playhouse, which both Arndt and Rueckl said was such a rewarding experience – and continues to be to this day.
“The project manager (Shelly) and Sophia’s mom (Stephanie) are still in contact with one another,” Arndt said. “Stephanie messaged Shelly and shared that Sophia was super excited about Halloween… She decided that she wanted to be a CCC employee, (because she said), ‘not only do they build cool things, they make dreams come true.’”
Sophia’s response, Arndt said, is how “you know you’ve made a difference.”
The importance behind it all
As CCC continues to give back to the area in which it resides – with building dog houses for the Humane Society on the docket – Arndt said “we are just so much a part of a community’s growth.”
“I think anyone who works at Consolidated will tell you that as they’re driving around Northeast Wisconsin with their family and friends, it’s pretty common that they’re going to point out the buildings that they’ve had a hand in creating,” she said. “But it’s just as gratifying to see good things in the community and be able to say, ‘I did that, too.’”
Rueckl said supporting the community is full circle, benefiting everyone involved.
“When you’re giving back, there’s that fulfillment that tends to release happy endorphins, and when we’re happy, we’re productive,” she said. “It takes all of us to make the work go ‘round… The biggest thing that I’ve seen by Consolidated employees having this opportunity is it’s created stronger teams for us.”
For other businesses interested in giving back to their communities, Rueckl said while a lot of the initiatives can take time, “there are rewarding aspects around every corner.”
“We have seen such an energy flow since we have been doing this,” she said. “And the amazing piece is, it hasn’t mattered what cause we’ve chosen – the team here has exceeded my expectations every time.”
To learn more about Consolidated Construction Co., visit its Facebook page.
