Non-profit Brooklawn Gets Help from GE

A throng of employees from General Electric were at work at Brooklawn Child & Family Services today. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer explains why.More than 500 GE employees showed up at Brooklawn’s campus off Goldsmith Lane for the company’s annual volunteer project.Brooklawn has a campus off Goldsmith Lane where it provides treatment program for emotionally disturbed children and their families. GE employees worked on a many projects there, including landscaping and building and refurbishing playgrounds.Brooklawn president and CEO, David Graves, says the work was a big boost to the organization."Financially, we just couldn’t have begun to afford all of the volunteer labor that is going into these many, many projects," Graves says, "new playgrounds for the children, painting and fixing some of our older facilities. So, it’s transformed our campus."Brooklawn officials estimate the work would have cost the organization more than $200,000.General Electric employee Jonathan Cunningham was leader of the volunteer project."We have over 500 volunteers," Cunningham says. "We were hoping to have about 650, and had the opportunity to move the project from Friday to today due to the weather — so, that’s been a fun adventure this year."The event had originally been scheduled for Friday, but was postponed due to rain.