Employees of Vancouver’s Modern Niagara, recently renamed from Keith Plumbing and Heating, lent their expertise to several local charities as part of Modern’s first-ever Community Day. The Vancouver crew joined 400 of their colleagues across Canada to put aside work on October 19 for volunteer activities.

“As one of the country’s largest trades contractor, Modern Niagara truly values the role we have in building and contributing to communities,” said executive vice-president Chris Hill. “Community Day is about giving back to the communities where we all live and work.”

Employees rolled up their sleeves to install new flooring, replace plumbing and paint for Harvest Project and HeroWork. Another team collected, sorted and delivered warm winter clothing for Covenant House’s youth shelter. And, some especially lucky volunteers helped make candy pizzas, which will help Loving Spoonful’s efforts for people living with HIV/AIDS. Many of the day’s charities were nominated by the employees themselves. Outreach then began to determine which charities could participate and how Modern Niagara could best help.

“It was great to give back to my community and help others,” said Karen Bayliss, a project coordinator with Modern Niagara Vancouver, who volunteered with HeroWork. “It was especially rewarding that our team could put our specialized contractor skills to good use for a deserving charity.”

The inaugural Community Day involved more than 25 projects across six cities: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto. Projects included sorting food bank and clothing donations, cleaning community gardens, and lending their expertise in carpentry, plumbing and painting.