GOLDEN Employees Use Paid Volunteer Time for Earth Day Clean Up

Golden Artist Colors' employees celebrated Earth Day 2011 by helping to clean up almost all 45 miles of roadsides in its town of Columbus, N.Y. One of the benefits of being an employee at GOLDEN is that all full-time employees may use up to 40 hours of paid Community Service time per year. Earth Day Clean Up is one way this time can be used.

GOLDEN, a company committed to supporting its local community, asked for employees to volunteer some time for this event. The company began Earth Day Clean Up in 2005 and each year, more and more staff has become involved. Of its 147 full-time employees, about 60% were able to participate in this year's event. Employees worked in pairs for the cleanup and the goal at the end of the day was to clean up nearly the entire 45 miles of the Town of Columbus maintained highway. Last year over one ton of garbage was removed from the roadsides as a result of the effort.

This is the fourth year that Bert Adams Disposal has supported the cleanup with a donation of a 20 yard roll-off container. This will be used to transport the debris to the landfill for disposal. To keep the event interesting, prizes were awarded for the heaviest bag and the most unique item found.

"This event is always supported by my colleagues," said Safety & Health Specialist, and event coordinator, Alysen Parsons. "It's for a wonderful cause and we all feel great about our efforts at the end of the day!"

"We're all part of this community and therefore, it's important that we give back," said GOLDEN CEO, Mark Golden. "Here at GOLDEN we're all committed to the belief that doing good is good for business."