On Saturday, April 30, 2011, 35 O’Neal team members including the CEO, members from all the design disciplines, support personnel and construction professionals, and their spouses and children, participated in Hands on Greenville Day by providing the good folks at the Frazee Dream Center with help to do some chores to keep the building looking clean and neat.

All skills levels were needed for this project, which involved hanging doors, installing windows, removing a sink and installing some shelves along with some light painting, and cleaning. It was a great project for the kids — working with their parents to clean and paint. Six of the participants were children of team members ages 4 to 14. 
  

O'Neal has had a team on HOG Day since 2005. This year, our site coordinator was Randy Etzkorn, who was responsible for team assignments and overall management of the site on HOG day.

The day included an after party at Fluor Field from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. with free food (pizza from Papa Johns and sandwiches from Dukes), free beer (Thomas Creek Ale), Pepsi products, chips from Costco and cookies from Subway and, as always, a free t-shirt.
 

The Frazee Dream Center is a free preschool, after school and summer program for under resourced children in the downtown Greenville area. The program offers assistance and guidance to children ages 3-16 in the areas of academics, character development, sportsmanship and emotional wellness. To learn more about Frazee and its mission visit their website http://www.frazeecenter.com/index.php. 

To learn more about United Way Hands On Greenville visit their website at www.handsongreenville.org 

For the fifth year in a row, O'Neal had a team in the 16th annual H.O.G. Day (Hands On Greenville). The community wide event showcased volunteerism and helped many nonprofit agencies across the county with landscaping, and cleaning and painting chores that they normally don't have the funds or manpower to accomplish.

O’Neal’s project benefited the Greenville County Disabilities and Special Needs Board (GCDSNB). GCDSNB is the only agency in Greenville County that supports over 2,000 special needs citizens through person-centered programming. This year’s HOG Day project involved replacing a deck and ramp for GCDSNB’s Greer Community Training Facility. Led by Bob Jacob, design specialist at O’Neal, the team provided the labor and tools necessary to complete the project.

For more information, visit www.handsongreenville.org .

The United Way "Be a Bunny" program provides participating companies with a basket filled with names and brief descriptions of children and/or senior citizens. Employees then select names and prepare baskets for UW staff to collect and distribute before Easter. O'Neal's Greenville office has participated in the United Way's "Be a Bunny" program since 2002. Our baskets were donated to children at Pleasant Valley Connection, a United Way-sponsored community center. PVC is a multi-faceted resource which connects Pleasant Valley community residents with opportunities to improve their education, employment, health, well-being, and community involvement. The children's programs at PVC include kindergarten prep, after-school daycare, after-school tutoring, and Girl Scouts.

For more information, visit United Way’s Website. 

During the first week of December, the employees at O’Neal’s Greenville office participated in HandsOn the Holidays — a program of the Greenville County Department of Social Services for children in foster care that is coordinated through HandsOn Greenville.  HandsOn the Holiday matches up foster children, who might otherwise have a very meager Christmas, with folks who want to give something back to the community during the Holiday Season.

We requested wish lists for four children and were asked to get them some of the items on their wish list. We wanted to make sure that each child was granted their special wish.  For Giovanni, age 11 it was a PSP, for Za’Quan, age 3 it was a Spiderman Chair, for Taniyah, age 5, it was a Hannah Montana doll and for Justin, age 19, it was welding tools for school.

For the 5^th year in a row, O’Neal participated in School Tools. The program is administered by the United Way of Greenville and provides low-income families the supplies they need to begin the school year - school supplies that are needed to start the first day of school ready to learn. Each participating company is given a school bus bag filled with names and brief descriptions of students.

O’Neal filled bags for 8 children this year. The bags filled by O’Neal employees included all kinds of supplies for the upcoming school year. Sarah Marin, coordinator of O’Neal’s efforts, said, “We always have a very generous response!”

For more information and media coverage of the program, visit United Way’s Website. 

O’Neal team members in Greenville have volunteered for Meals on Wheels for 15 years. Every Thursday, O'Neal team members pick up meals from the local Meals on Wheels kitchen and then deliver the meals on a route consisting of 8 to 12 houses. In Greenville County alone, Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver 1,500 meals per day to homebound individuals. In addition to adequate nutrition, volunteers provide the human touch that means so much to the homebound person.  O'Neal looks forward to continuing to volunteer for the Meals on Wheels organization.