Mid-Year Foundation Update

The year 2020 will always serve as a year of change. As the world endures a pandemic like we’ve never seen before, our business and surrounding communities strive to stay strong and overcome the challenges that have impacted us all. Due to the longevity of strong operations as a company, the structure of our new giving program perseveres.

In early 2020, the Helmkamp Scholarship Fund was created in partnership with Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. Our annual donor gift of $5,000 will be used as scholarship support for two (2) full-time students majoring in Construction Management at SIUE. The selected students who qualify according to the criteria set by the fund are to receive $2,500 each.

On Thursday, March 12th at the St. Louis Business Journal’s Best Places to Work event, Helmkamp was recognized as the recipient of one of their special acknowledgements, the Community Impact Award. This was a huge honor for our company, as the Foundation was created in 2019 and our charitable giving doubled over 2018. What you might not know is when the team who was present posed for a group photo, Rob accidentally dropped the crystal award. It shattered into pieces as surprise and laughter instantly pursued. It was a meaningful – and memorable – occasion! We got the award replaced and thank each and every employee at Helmkamp Construction for helping us make a difference which led the way to (hopefully) inspiring other leading area businesses to do the same.

As our community started to open back up in May and June, our Foundation’s committee decided to use one of our Maximum Impact Awards reserved for the end of the year and put it towards Covid-relief initiatives. Helmkamp’s Maximum Impact Award allocates a larger donation amount, currently $20,000, to put towards an organization in attempt to make more of an impact towards that cause. This donation for Covid-relief was split, sending half ($10,000) to Kindness Meals STL to support local restaurants and front-line healthcare workers in Missouri. The other half ($10,000) was sent to the Food Crisis Center in Alton, who devoted half the donation directly on their programs and half purchasing gift cards to local restaurants on the Illinois side and distributing those as needed to the hungry clients they serve. We appreciate the Crisis Food Center of Alton for partnering with us in a way that could provide support in multiple ways to our community.

The Foundation also partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Gateway Grizzlies to have a special event at one of the Grizzlies’ baseball games this summer. The Alzheimer’s Association “Night at the Ballpark” sponsored by Helmkamp Construction was originally scheduled for August 4th. Due to the pandemic, the Grizzlies’ had to cancel their season but have agreed to postpone the event until the 2021 season. More details to come on that event next year!

The Foundation has continued its support to other organizations in our area as we typically do each year as well, including Alton Memorial’s ambulance fundraiser, the MS Walk, and the Boys & Girls Club. A few initiatives coming up in the 2nd half of the year include: our annual company team for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, scheduled to be held virtually this year on Sept. 12th, the annual Kidstruction campaign through BJC’s Children’s Hospital in late Sept through October, and year-end giving programs that take all employees’ charitable preferences into account. We look forward to a strong finish to the year.

For a downloadable PDF of this update, please visit our Community page.