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    Volunteers spruce up Pepper Drive K-8 School as part of Green Apple Day Service

    October 09, 2012


    SAN DIEGO -  More than  60 volunteers completed several school improvement projects at Pepper Drive K-8 School in the Santee School District as part of Green Apple Day of Service on Saturday, September 29, 2012.  Balfour Beatty Construction partnered with the San Diego Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (SDGBC) to host the inaugural Green Apple Day of Service, which is part of the U.S. Green Building Council Green Apple Day of Service movement happening on the same day at schools around the world.  

    Activities at Pepper Drive School included beautification and improvement projects as well as training for K-12 Santee teachers and administrators interested in becoming Green Classroom Professionals, a national certification that prepares them to participate in “greening” their school and community.

    Sean Hulen, vice president of operations for Balfour Beatty in Southern California, thanked volunteers and donors who helped to transform the school. "Sustainability is our collective responsibility. The work performed was much needed and very meaningful to the students, faculty, and families. In addition to the environmental transformation of the school, the San Diego Green Building Council educated over 25 faculty who will in turn educate hundreds of children about the benefits of sustainability and the multifaceted aspects of this crucial world issue,” Hulen said.  

    “I stepped on campus today and the new reading park outside the Junior High building was already in use,” said Christina Becker, director of Maintenance, Operations & Facilities at Santee School District. “A student and teacher were outside working on an assignment, under the new shade at one of the tables and a different student was reading independently in the shade at another table.  Words cannot begin to express our gratitude to everyone who made this possible for the Santee School District and the Pepper Drive school community,” Becker added.

    Projects completed at the school during Green Apple Day of Service included:
    • Constructing sustainable student gardens with planter boxes
    • Constructing tree planters and installing shade trees
    • Installing shade umbrellas at picnic areas
    • Refurbishing a turf field and irrigation improvements
    • Installing a new chain link fence
    • Painting the exterior cement wall on Marlinda Way

    There were many sponsors, partners, subcontractors, family and friends that joined the effort to help transform the school including A&S Flooring, Able Heating & Air, American Sheet Metal, Antonelli’s Deli, Arrowhead, Artimex, Iron Company, Atlas Mechanical, Baker Electric, Brady Company, Balfour Beatty Construction, Brady Company, Cement Cutting, Inc., Center for Ecoliteracy, Challenger Sheet Metal, Commercial Openings, Copy-It, Costco, Dave Bang & Associates, Go Staff, Gould Electric, HD Supply, Hub Zone Doors, Inland Pacific Inc., International Iron, International Iron Products, Interpipe Contracting , Inc., JEB Sand & Gravel, John & Chetta Diamond, Lakeside Land, Mission Valley Landscape, Mountain Materials, Inc., Muck Truck California, New Dimension Masonry, Pacific Coast Glazing, Inc., Pam Legge (Personal Donation), Regen Energy, RCP Block & Brick, Rocky Coast Framers, San Diego Gas & Electric, Sierra Pacific West, Simmons & Wood Painting, South Bay Fence Company, Steven Smith Landscape, Sunstate Equipment Co., The Energy Coalition, United Site Services, Waste Management, White Cap, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.