KEPHART’s guiding mission is to provide everyone with a well-designed place to live, work, and play. Beyond our architectural work, one of the ways that we fulfill that mission is through our Community Outreach Committee – a group established by employees who saw the strength in KEPHART’s internal community and sought to use that unity as a catalyst to bring positive change to our external community, too. The committee regularly meets to brainstorm opportunities for employees to leverage their talents, time, and resources to support worthy organizations. Over the past year, we’ve taken a special focus on supporting a local non-profit, We Don’t Waste – a food recovery organization that focuses on redistributing quality food to the hungry. This past winter, KEPHART participated in one of We Don’t Waste’s largest annual events – a can-building contest called CANstruction. We designed and built a replica of Denver’s iconic Big Blue Bear, shaped out of the 2,400 cans of tuna, 550 boxes of pasta, 336 cans of cream of mushroom, and 15 bags of rice that KEPHART donated.
KEPHART and the Community Outreach Committee have also partnered with various school programs in the Denver Metro area. This includes partnering with Cole High School to host an intern each school year, providing the students a glimpse into the architecture industry, and hosting a back-to-school drive for Columbine Elementary, providing students with the supplies they need to succeed. Over the past few months, as COVID has limited in-person interactions, the committee has focused its energy on partnering with Arts Street, a Youth Employment Academy training program. We’ve connected with the students via Zoom to share industry knowledge and ideas with the students that will help them put together their final presentations to the City Council. KEPHART Project Manager Brian Young said, “The students’ commitment and enthusiasm to creating a healthy and positive community was a great thing to see and was a great inspiration.”
Whether it be through volunteer efforts, monetary and in-kind donations, or internal events celebrating the achievements and creativity of employees, KEPHART and the Community Outreach committee strive to do its part in nurturing relationships and positively contributing to the places where we all live, work and play.
