Craftsmen wearing pink attire is a rare sight on a construction job site. At Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell Complex, however, nearly 200 Graycor Industrial craft workers recently joined together wearing brightly colored pink shirts, made special for the occasion, to help raise funds for building awareness in fighting cancer.
In total, more than 250 project members (including the entire Consumers Energy project team), tradespeople, subcontractors and vendors attended the Oct. 15 charity luncheon at the job site of Consumers Energy’s power plant located on a 2,000-acre site along Lake Michigan’s shoreline near West Olive, Michigan.
“After a lot of brainstorming and team discussions on what we could do as a project, we asked for input from our subcontractors and vendors,” said Mike Miner, Graycor Industrial project manager. “We were thrilled that the whole team jumped in and participated,” he said.
Through the lunch donations from attendees (Graycor Industrial contributed the lunches) and contributions from sponsors, the ‘Building Awareness’ fundraiser, organized by Graycor Safety Representative John Paul White and supported by client Consumers Energy, raised more than $4,000 toward Philadelphia-based American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Foundation, the oldest and largest cancer organization in the world that fosters every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research.
“With October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, our team felt this was a good cause for our project members and craftspeople to support,” said John Paul. “During this time of year, there can sometimes be a lull due to change in daylight and colder weather, so we felt it was a good opportunity to re-energize our workforce,” he added.
Special thanks go to the event’s prime sponsors: API Construction Co., Avalotis Corp., Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services Inc., and Deep South Crane and Rigging, as well as to Midland Tool & Supply Inc., a key vendor who participated, and to Consumers Energy for providing the event space.
“It’s great partnering with companies who share a dedication to serving the surrounding community and greater good,” said Brad Plummer, project manager for major projects and construction for Consumers Energy. “Cancer is a disease we’ve all been impacted by in some way or another; we were very excited when Graycor came to us with the idea, and the event was a great success,” he added.
At Consumers’ Campbell Station, Graycor Industrial is currently performing an Air Quality Control System (AQCS) project on Unit 1, as well as an Activated Carbon Injection (ACI) and Dry Sorbent Injection (DSI) project on Units 1 and 2. Both projects are scheduled for final completion in April 2016.
In addition to Mike and John Paul, Graycor Industrial’s project team includes John Gowland, project director; Shane Walleske, general superintendent; Keith Hahn, engineer; Tyler Phillips, engineer; Pam Dudzik, office manager; and Mike McPherson, QA/QC representative.