Bond Attorneys And Staff Trade In Briefcases And Computers For Work Gloves, Paint Brushes And Rakes On Bond Community Service Day
June 27, 2012
(Syracuse, NY): On June 27th, nearly 200 attorneys and staff from the Syracuse headquarters office along with the Oswego and Ithaca offices rolled up their sleeves and fanned out across Central New York for the fourth Bond Community Service Day.
Bond attorneys and staff committed themselves to a variety of projects including: installing siding on a Syracuse Habitat for Humanity home, harvesting vegetables at the Matthew 25 Farm in Tully, cleaning up Schiller Park and Lipe Art Park in the City of Syracuse, and performing many other tasks at work sites in Onondaga, Madison and Oswego Counties. Fourteen of the 35 nonprofits organizations being served are United Way of Central New York agencies.
"This is one of the largest and most far-reaching corporate volunteer events in Central New York", said Justin Lynch, Regional Volunteer Coordinator at the United Way of Central New York. "When companies like Bond bring so many people to the table, this investment of effort goes a long way."
The dollar value of volunteerism in New York State is $27.32 per hour, according to Lynch and the website Independent Sector. With 190 volunteers working 4.5 hours, that equates to a volunteer community investment value of approximately $23,359 for Bond Community Day.
At Lipe Art Park along West Fayette Street on Syracuse's West side, Bond volunteers will be picking up litter, pulling weeds and mulching vegetable and flower gardens. "West Fayette Street is a very busy, important corridor used by thousands of commuters on their way into downtown Syracuse," said Ben Walsh, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development for the city of Syracuse, and Executive Director of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency (SIDA), which owns the park property. "Beautifying this gateway to downtown helps improve the aesthetics of the city."
On Gifford Street, volunteers from Bond will be installing aluminum siding on a 1,400-square foot Syracuse Habitat for Humanity house that will soon be home to a family of three. "We're trying to eliminate substandard housing on the Near Westside and restore quality of life for residents, one home at a time," said Kristin Earle, Director of Resource Development for Syracuse Habitat for Humanity. "This donation of labor by Bond will benefit the entire neighborhood."
Chris Wiles, Treasurer of the Schiller Park Neighborhood Association on Syracuse's North Side where Bond volunteers will be landscaping several flower gardens, praised the firm for helping "close the gap" and offset a shortage of city workers. "This will clean up and beautify the park, which is great, because the city is very short on people to do this kind of work right now," said Wiles.
According to the Firm's Management Committee Chairman, Richard Hole, initiatives like Community Service Day are popular with Bond employees, even if it means some extra hours in the office this week to complete on-going work on behalf of clients. "Giving back to our community and helping those less advantaged are important to our attorneys and staff, both of which are Bond's biggest asset," said Hole. "Our people want to make meaningful, active contributions to society. Many of our attorneys and staff serve on boards for nonprofits, and we've been big supporters of the United Way for years. Volunteerism is a "win-win for the community and for Bond."
Additionally Bond was honored in May by the New York State Bar Association for providing pro-bono legal services to indigent persons, including families facing eviction, victims of domestic violence and people in other serious legal situations.
Bond, Schoeneck & King is one of the largest employers in downtown Syracuse with 235 employees. Bond is also the largest New York State law firm headquartered outside of New York City, with nine offices statewide, plus an office in both Kansas and Florida.
