Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 21, 2016
Denver Metro BOMA’s Community Affairs Committee (CAC) has been the community outreach arm of BOMA in Denver for over 20 years. There are two main events that the CAC organizes every year, the Annual Spring Work Day and the Annual BOMA Toy Drive. The Annual Spring Work Day, generally occurring in June, alternates between serving Denver Children’s Home and Mount Saint Vincent. The Annual BOMA Toy Drive occurs between November and December and works with hundreds of buildings to collect toys and other items on behalf of a dozen different charities. With a member list of 30 of the most talented and engaged professionals, the CAC is proud to serve the community and enlist others to help. This year’s Annual Spring Work Day served Denver Children’s Home. The CAC recruited and organized 80 volunteers from various property management groups and professional services. The scope of services included general deep cleaning, painting, gardening, carpet cleaning, metal services and elevator services among others. The BOMA community came together to give the building a little love to make the environment for the staff and children a better place to be. Aside from the individual volunteers, several professional companies sent in full crews of employees to perform the more skilled work, such as stripping and refinishing of metal doors, painting staff offices and the cafeteria as well as installation of new flowers and removal of dead trees around the property. In order to accomplish the vast scope we had all materials donated to the Denver Children’s home including cleaning materials, plants and paint. Among other donations were wish-list items for the staff offices including furniture, lamps and artwork. We also were fortunate enough to have a full BBQ lunch donated to feed volunteers, staff members and the children. We enjoyed a little shade and a break while visiting with the kids over lunch. The children took the time to write thank you cards to BOMA. “It’s amazing that so many of you came out here for us. For you to cook for us AND clean up this old building means a ton. Thanks for making living here easier and more enjoyable. I appreciate you all,” wrote Veronica. “I am thankful for everything that you did for DCH. I appreciate it very much. I am glad to see that you care about us,” wrote an anonymous child. Last year was the 20th anniversary of the BOMA Toy Drive in Denver. The scope of services for this event include making contact with building managers to set out donation boxes in hundreds of building across metro Denver where the tenants of the buildings are encouraged to donate items, from toys and gifts/ clothing for teens to self-care products for single mothers. The CAC worked for three months to organize participating buildings to collect over 22,000 donated items for children, women and families, which served 12 different charities. In addition to the items collected from commercial buildings, more than $2,000 in gift cards was collected. The come-together moment for the Toy Drive is the sorting day. This is when we welcome everyone who is willing to come together to sort all the collected items for each charity based on their need. We get to see all the items together in the same room before being organized and handed off. The effect is heartwarming. This event is open to all buildings, whether they are BOMA members or not. If you are interested in having your building participate in this wonderful event, or know of someone else, please reach out to the BOMA office to join us for the 2016 BOMA Toy Drive. The more the merrier! Our perspective is, we are the best at what we do in each of our respective fields, why shouldn’t we come together and use our skill and knowledge to better the lives of the people in the community we work and live in. We feel this goes hand in hand with our larger mission as members of BOMA – advancing the commercial real estate industry through advocacy, professional development and the exchange of knowledge.