Intel employees team up to improve kindergarten
By Angela Greiner Contributing Writer

Victor Badilla, a visiting Intel employee from Costa Rica, paints the boys bathroom at the Hubert Kindergarten.

Hudson - Twenty-five paintbrushes, 15 rollers and 37 gallons of paint plus a team of Intel volunteers equals a makeover for a local school. Dressed in matching T-shirts and painting clothes, 45 Intel employees volunteered their time June 22 to repaint Hubert Kindergarten in Hudson.

The employees decided to forgo traditional team-building activities such as bowling or hiking in favor of an activity they could do as a team to give back to the community.

The team of volunteers dedicated their eight-hour workday to repainting interior walls and trim, washing windows, desks and chairs, spreading loam and reseeding the grass, as well as drawing a mural on one of the walls at the school.

In addition to getting a facelift, the school will benefit fi- nancially from the Intel Foundation's Volunteer Matching Grant program. For every 20 hours of volunteer work the Intel employees do at the school, the Intel Foundation pays out $200 to the school. With tight school budgets, the donation of more than $3,000 from the Volunteer Matching Grant program will allow the schools to obtain items that they would typically not be able to buy.

Desmond Kelly, the Intel employee responsible for setting up the event, explained that the employees wanted to have a group event that would give back to the community. He began planning the event two months ago after approaching Intel's public aff airs office, which had a list of community groups looking for volunteers.

Kelly and several other engineers from the product development, product debugging and the Massachusetts validation center team met with students and worked with the school to pick colors and devise a plan to get the maximum work done for the school.

Tom Clark, a member of the product development team, explained as he gave the children's chairs a much-needed scrub down that it was a great event and that he felt like he started his weekend early.

"It is easy to get caught up in the rat race both at work and at home, and you often forget about the community," Clark said.

Kelly laughed and joked with a team of visiting employees from Costa Rica who joined the volunteer eff orts and were responsible for painting the bathroom. The visitors included Victor Badilla, who explained that as an employee of Intel he volunteered to teach a first-grade class back home.

"This is much easier than cutting papers for 6-year-olds," improve kindergarten

he said.

Damian Ruggerie, a school employee working in the building and grounds department, spent a couple of weeks planning the event.

"I have already taken two trips to Robinson's Ace Hardware this morning because there were more volunteers than expected and they are going to paint other areas," Ruggieri said.

The day was full of laughter, pizza, ice cream and hard work as the team of engineers gave their time.

"I often tend to donate money," Clark said, "but time is sometimes more valuable."