PricewaterhouseCoopers is known for its assurance, tax, and advisory services to the industry. To help demonstrate the firm’s values it has declared June as a firm wide ‘Month of Community,’ a national effort, now in its third year, that the firm sponsors at offices around the country, involving 30,000 partners and staff and millions of dollars in donated time.
While many PwC employees participate in community service activities and support charities on their own, the ‘Month of Community’ was established to concentrate those efforts. The thought was that an event where all 30,000 US partners and staff join together over a month would be a more powerful statement regarding the firm’s commitment to improving communities and quality of life.
For the Houston office, the third annual Day of Service brought over 300 PwC partners and staff to the Julia C. Hester House, a United Way agency community center that provides a safe-haven for children, families, and senior citizens. That June day, the group boarded yellow school buses to the Fifth Ward to volunteer their time, labor, skills, and knowledge.
When the day was complete, the crew had painted 48 classroom walls, two fences, 18 benches, a gazebo, and restriped the parking lot. More than 100 new plants were planted, numerous yards of mulch were distributed, and 48 bags of trash were removed from the grounds.
Additionally, with the help of The Orange Show artists, bright murals were painted on the outside walls overlooking the children’s playground, three playhouses and six tables with benches to produce a cheerful play area. Old equipment was removed and a new kiddie cushion replaced the old beneath the Jungle Jim.
Two of firm’s US energy practice assurance partners, Martha Carnes and Ricardo Moreno, were on hand that day.
“It was a great way to spend time giving back to the community and a great way to network with our people and to show them the importance of living our values and demonstrating hands on what we’re trying to accomplish when we work with clients,” said Carnes.
“I was working with a team of about eight other people assigned to painting. We had to come up with a plan of attack and do as high quality a job as a bunch of accountants could do,” she joked. “I actually didn’t know any of the people on the team. We have over 1,000 people in the office and it’s hard to know everybody. It was a great way to get to know some of the people that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to meet and work with during the normal course of the day,” she continued.
“The house was truly transformed. It was rewarding to know that we really could make a difference in our community,” she continued.
Moreno has been with PwC for 18 years and this was his second time participating. He spent most of the day landscaping with managers and staff, but noticed another facet to the work being done that day. “It was impressive to see not only the people that were working outside, but a group of people that took the time, not only to work outside, but to talk to some of the seniors in the house. You could tell they were very excited about having visitors,” he said.
He pointed out that the day was not only about painting and landscaping, but about getting out and sharing with the community. “It was an exciting day. When you step back and look at everybody contributing, you see that people do it because they want to, not because they’re asked to.”
