On October 12 of this year, Civiltech celebrated its 35th Anniversary. In honor of this milestone, Civiltech embarked on a year-long initiative called 35 Signs of Kindness, with a goal of giving back to our communities and to organizations that are meaningful to our team. The initiative was divided into 3 buckets of activities – Individual Volunteer Activities, Individual Donation Activities, and Civiltech Corporate Charitable Donations. Company goals included impacting 35 different organizations with employee individual volunteer activities and raising a minimum of $3,500 in staff individual donations.
We kicked off the initiative on February 17 – National Kindness Day. Then we were quickly off and running with staff logging donations and volunteer hours on a tracking doc.
Civiltech employees participate in company volunteer activities that occur throughout the year. We clean up a stretch of Quentin Road in the Village of Kildeer as part of Adopt-a-Highway and a stretch of bike path along National Avenue in Schaumburg as part of Adopt-a-Bike Path. We pick up trash in Heritage Green Park in Chicago as part of the Chicago Park District’s Pitch In for the Parks. Also, we pack food at Feed My Starving Children as part of our annual holiday celebration. 
This year, for the 35 Signs initiative, we added a spring food drive and a late summer backpack drive. In April, employees collected food items to donate to Northern Illinois Food Bank. We collected over 600 individual food items and $311 of cash donations, which equates to $2,488 of groceries. In August, we collected 221 various back to school supplies which were donated to Kids Above All.
Civiltech staff also teamed up for various events. In the summer, Civiltech fielded a small, but mighty team called Team Walkabouts, that walked in the Shopping Cart Shuffle for DuPage County Food Banks, and a team of runners participated in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. And in September, Team MATEAM from Civiltech’s Construction Engineering department pulled a 737 for Special Olympics.
Throughout the year, individual volunteer activities covered a wide range of organizations. Many people donated time to their kid’s schools or to mentoring programs. People participated in fun activities for fundraising: packed toys, hiked with ruck sacks, installed flags, manned ticket booths, presented, tutored, planned, organized, and led. Staff also robustly donated to charitable organizations throughout the year. Recipients included GoFundMe campaigns, community welfare groups, healthcare organizations, educational support groups, animal welfare groups, schools, and more.
On October 12, the day of our anniversary, employees received an anniversary gift of fun Civiltech swag. At the end of the day, the company walked 2 miles as a team around the lakes at Hamilton Lakes Business Park, ending at the Church Street Brewing HopGarten tent for an after party. The event, called the “Walk and Talk”, raised over $2,000 that was donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Chicagoland and Northern Indiana, Habitat for Humanity of Northern Fox Valley, and PAWS Chicago.
The Walk and Talk was a great way to cap off Civiltech’s 35th Anniversary and provide a fun and meaningful 35 Signs event. However, we’re not done yet! 35 Signs of Kindness continues until December 31. So even though we’ve already exceeded our goals, we look forward to ending the year with stats that hit it out of the park.
Thank you to our clients, families, and friends, whose ongoing support of Civiltech has carried us to this milestone. And thank you to our employees, those who have been here for the full ride to those who recently joined the team, for your hard work, innovation, and dedication.