Volunteers help Bayshore communities

BAYSHORE (April 26, 2010) – Nearly 200 LyondellBasell employees, contractors and family members swarmed over the Bayshore communities last Saturday, April 24, working on projects at San Jacinto Battlefield and Battleship Texas Park, Bayshore Elementary, Shoreacres Circle Park and Armand Bayou Nature Center.

Their goal was simple: Make a difference by giving back to the Bayshore communities. LyondellBasell’s 11th annual Global Care Day featured employee volunteers at facilities circling the globe who took on projects in their communities in order to make those neighborhoods better places to live and work. This year, 65 communities in 20 countries where the company operates benefited from Global Care Day, and a whopping 17 projects were in the greater Houston area. Four projects were in the Bayshore area. “Our five facilities in the Bayshore communities are involved throughout the year, but Global Care Day is significant because it gives our employees, contractors, families and friends a chance to work together on a project that is above and beyond,” said Courtney Ruth, plant manager at LyondellBasell’s La Porte Complex. “We value being a part of La Porte, Shoreacres and Morgan’s Point, and this gives us a chance to work in partnership with our neighbors.”

Shoreacres proclaimed last Saturday LyondellBasell Day in honor of the many ways the company has helped the city recover from the devastation of Ike and for projects dating back to 2006. Last Saturday, volunteers from the Bayport Choate Plant re-planted trees destroyed by Hurricane Ike in Shoreacres’ Circle Park, a project originally planted in 2006 by company volunteers who used a company grant to purchase the trees. The volunteers also built and installed six benches for the park. “This award (LyondellBasell Day) is in recognition and appreciation of the tremendous support received from LyondellBasell and its volunteers over several years, but especially after Hurricane Ike,” Mayor Jayo Washington said. Volunteers from the La Porte Complex went to the historic San Jacinto Battleground & Battleship Texas Park to clear brush, build benches, raise low spots on a pathway and establish rest areas along Monument Walking Trail. An outdoor classroom was constructed for guided tours and employees’ children built birdhouses and bird feeders. The work now offers places where visitors can watch wildlife and birds in their natural habitats. The volunteer effort was on the same day as the annual Battle of San Jacinto Festival and Battle Re-enactment. "I can think of no better way to enhance the annual celebration of Texas than by having a fantastic volunteer effort like the Global Care Day project going on simultaneously,” said Complex Superintendent Russ Kuykendall of San Jacinto Battleground & Battleship Texas. “While Texans party at the San Jacinto Monument, fellow Texans from LyondellBasell will be hard at work improving the educational opportunities for both school children and adults. This includes such diverse topics as tidal marsh, bottomland hardwood forest, coastal prairie, hundreds of bird and other wildlife species, as well as the historical significance of the wetlands to the outcome of the Battle of San Jacinto." 

At the new Bayshore Elementary, Bayport Choate Plant volunteers moved a pergola from the old school (destroyed by Hurricane Ike) to the new location, landscaped the area and replaced benches. The pergola, an irrigation system and a garden were built by plant volunteers on Global Care Day 2008. The pergola stood tall when Ike swept through, but the school was ruined. Bayport Underwood Plant employees helped Armand Bayou Nature Center with its main entrance by the Visitors’ Center by cutting back overgrown vines and bushes, trimming trees, weeding, landscaping, removing debris and repairing a fence.  LyondellBasell has been a supporter and partner with the nature center for decades, and the center’s LyondellBasell Living Lab is one of many gifts to the center from LyondellBasell.

“LyondellBasell has become a major supporter, both by sponsoring new exhibits like the LyondellBasell Living Lab and by encouraging their employees to participate in major volunteer projects,” said Executive Director Tom Kartrude of Armand Bayou Nature Center. “We are truly grateful. Their corporate and employee generosity is a model for other businesses in the area.” While the company continues to manage costs, funding was provided for project supplies. But the best contribution to the community is “sweat equity,” said Doug Mathera, plant manager of the Bayport Choate Plant. “We can provide the physical labor on projects that are most needed, and we can help organizations and communities that are struggling in today’s challenging economic times,” Mathera said.

The 17 Global Care Day projects in the greater Houston area include work at North Pointe Elementary School in Houston’s Clear Lake Area, a Pasadena homeless shelter, Rebuilding Together projects (repairing homes of elderly residents) in Pasadena, Cloverleaf and Highlands, baseball fields in Galena Park, an east Houston city park in the Oak Meadows neighborhood, Sheldon Elementary, Crenshaw Elementary in Channelview, Hermann Park in Houston and landscaping the new Liverpool City Hall. LyondellBasell’s 10 Houston-area facilities include Bayport Choate, Bayport Polymers, Bayport Underwood, Channelview, Chocolate Bayou, Equistar Pipeline, the Houston Refinery, La Porte, Mont Belvieu and One Houston Center.

Global Care Day began in 2000 as a way to reach out to local communities where the company operates. Global Care Day challenges employees worldwide to participate in community service above and beyond ongoing community involvement activities with a special project on the same day. Each participating site selects a project that meets the following criteria: It addresses a community need, it is aligned with one of the company’s community-relations focus-areas of education, environmental quality or community sustainability and the result will be a visible improvement because of employee involvement. More information can be found at: http://www.lyondellbasell.com/globalcareday or find us on Facebook. Search for LyondellBasell Global Care Day.