Houston adopts Holbrook Elementary
For the past five years CH2M HILL's Houston office has partnered with Holbrook Elementary School. Each year employees participate in activities such as the Partner's in Education Mentoring Program, Christmas Bike Giveaway, Engineers Week and a variety of other initiatives. Each year mentors from CH2M HILL arrive at Holbrook with optimism, love and a desire to build a rewarding relationship with their mentee. They are active listeners, lunch buddies, friends, tutors, cheerleaders, and wonderful individuals who recognize the value of the child that sits across from them weekly. In addition to mentoring, CH2M HILL holds an annual bike drive at its Houston office. At Christmas time individuals from the company visit the school and provide bikes and helmets to some of the neediest students.
CH2M HILL engineers also host Engineers Week activities at Holbrook. Each February a dozen employee volunteers bring in supplies to lead students in hands on activities students on topics such as water purification, bridge building, and mechanical engineering to name a few. During one of the sessions where students had the opportunity to see the major components of a steam engine and how they work together to produce steam, a student was so taken with the process that he exclaimed, "I believe I have changed my mind of what I want to be when I grow up! I no longer want to be a football player; I want to be an engineer!" Through fundraising, CH2M HILL employees raised more than $1,200 to build a new playground at the school.