Archived News

5/14/2002 - Armstrong Foundation to Match Employee Volunteer Hours with Donations to Harb-Adult

The Armstrong Foundation will be donating money to a Lancaster center for transitional living, thanks to a group of employees who volunteered their time and skills to renovate part of the center into a comfortable and attractive meeting and dining room.

The volunteers, all from Facilities Management, Corporate HR, are shown here in the remodeled area at the Harb-Adult center. They included: Dave Hawk, sr. craft specialist; Steven Piguet, director, who coordinated the volunteers; Bill Nelson, day services; Harold Sellers, sr. craft master level II; Dave Otthoffer, sr. craft master; Dale Miley, craft associate; and Mike Campion, team leader, Electrical Instrumentation & A/V. Tom Finefrock, day services, is not pictured.

Harb-Adult is a home between homes for individuals and nuclear families who have fallen on hard times but who have made the commitment to turn their lives around. Residents must be drug and alcohol free and must have some source of income, however temporary. Harb-Adult’s role is to provide transitional housing while helping residents learn how to parlay temporary jobs into more lucrative and steady full-time employment.

The average stay at Harb-Adult is about fifteen weeks, and in addition to housing, the center offers training in areas such as depression/anxiety/anger management, landlords’ and tenants’ rights and responsibilities, and budgeting.

Several of the Armstrong volunteers spent about 40 hours each tearing out old lighting, switches, receptacles and wiring and installing all new electrical fixtures, new ceiling panels, and new cabinets, as well as patching and painting the 1,200-sq.-ft. room. Flooring mechanics from the Armstrong Installation School installed a new resilient tile floor.

At one time the site of Harb-Adult’s day care center, the space had been damaged by floodwater and general wear and tear. A far cry, says Harb-Adult executive director, Jay Kiralfy, from the way it looks today.

“You know in our business,” he says, “you never shut the door at the end of the day and walk away, not entirely. The Armstrong volunteers showed the same sense of dedication.

“They came every night, after putting in eight or more hours at their regular jobs, and they stayed until satisfied that the job for that day was done and the area cleaned up for the night. And the finished room looks beautiful.

“I was happy enough when Armstrong told us they would also provide the ceiling, floor tiles and cabinets. But when I learned that the Foundation was going to make a monetary donation to match the hours put in by the employee volunteers, I was elated.”

The Armstrong Foundation’s Employee Gift-Matching Program is aimed at encouraging the "support of organizations and programs in communities where Armstrong employees live and work through both monetary and volunteer opportunities."

All full-time U.S. employees of Armstrong World Industries, Inc. are eligible to participate. Gift recipients must be 501 (c)(3) organizations that are not private foundations and are recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.

The Foundation will match donations made by employees. For monetary contributions, the minimum gift that will be matched is $50. The maximum amount for each employee, from single or multiple gifts, is $250 per calendar year.

To qualify to have volunteer-hours matched by a donation from the Foundation, employees must volunteer at least 36 hours during the calendar year. The number of hours volunteered must be documented by the recipient 501 (c)(3) organization. The Foundation will match $250 per calendar year for hours volunteered by an employee, and employees must volunteer their time during non-scheduled work hours.