Gardening for a Good Cause with DC City Blossoms
On Friday, July 29, CRC CARES members from the Arlington office traded in their calculators and computers for gardening gloves and tools.
Participating in a half-day community service event with DC-based non-profit, City Blossoms, our team of 17 worked on planting and maintaining Marion Street Intergeneration Garden, a communal, educational urban garden designed to be an artistic expression of the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood.
Working alone and in groups, participants of this half-day community service endeavor helped City Blossoms weed, fertilize, and harvest plants, and also contributed to necessary tasks like managing compost, spreading soil and mulch, painting garden signs, and maintaining flower beds. At the culmination of the event, our team was invited to harvest fresh produce. Among the garden’s ripe offerings were grapes, cucumbers, chives, tomatoes, and jalapeño peppers; the last of which spurred an adventurous eating contest among some of our volunteers.
City Blossoms is a non-profit dedicated to fostering healthy communities by developing creative, kid-driven green spaces. Based in Washington, DC, City Blossoms provides bilingual, free, and affordable after-care, in-school, and summer programming to predominantly Latino and African-American youth ranging from ages two to eighteen. They serve neighborhoods in which children and teens may not otherwise have access to green spaces. Since 2009, City Blossoms has worked on 42 sites in Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
2016 JDRF Real Estate Games Recap
CRC CARES members participated in our second JDRF Real Estate Games, held Thursday, June 2 at American University in Washington, DC. The leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes research, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has raised more than $5.5 million since its establishment in 1989.
Thanks to the popularity of last year’s event, our team expanded its presence in the games’ 27th year by participating in events such as doubles tennis, table tennis, corn hole, and a 5K (where we brought home first place). The day raised money for a great cause while providing a unique team-building opportunity for competitors. Much like last year, the enthusiasm for the event was not deterred by gray skies; CRC CARES members were joined by thousands of participants from the DC Real Estate community.
Founded by Adam Singer and Rick Kimball, the JDRF Real Estate Games hosted its first annual event on July 20, 1990 at Gonzaga College High School. Twenty six years later, the event has grown exponentially with the support of more than 115 companies, 2,000 participants, and 200 volunteers raising more than $400,000 annually.
CRC CARES Member AJ Caputo Speaks at H.D. Cooke Elementary School Career Day
CRC Partners employee AJ Caputo took time out of his hectic schedule on Friday, June 3 to give 4th grade students at H.D. Cooke Elementary School in Northwest Washington, DC an overview of real estate development.
As part of the school’s annual career day, Caputo created an interactive PowerPoint presentation that drew upon the game Monopoly to help the class understand the complex world of real estate development. By asking students a series of questions about what they need in their homes to live comfortably, Caputo primed them to understand the similar process he and his colleagues went through when designing homes for our nation’s Wounded Warriors.
Caputo brought a tangible element into the presentation by providing each student an architect’s scale and demonstrating how to use one on a building plan. The demonstration was capped off by questions that students had diligently amassed throughout the presentation.
As Caputo is currently working on a project down the street from H.D. Cooke Elementary, he embodies the true spirit of CRC CARES, which encourages members to become active in the neighborhoods where they live and work.
