AXA Investment Mangers Spruces Up Stamford School

STAMFORD, CT - From Stamford Public Education Foundation: As the school year draws to a close and the days get warmer, the campus at Julia A. Stark Elementary School was in need of some “sprucing up.” On Friday, June 15, approximately 70 volunteers from AXA Investment Mangers (AXA IM), headquartered in Greenwich, CT, shed their business attire in exchange for workpants and gardening gloves as part of AXA’s Global CR Week 2018. This community engagement was coordinated by the Stamford Public Education Foundation (SPEF) in alignment with its role of bridging the gap between Stamford Public Schools and the business community.

This 2018 AXA Hearts in Action event provided volunteers with the opportunity to work together with approximately 30 Stark students to help revitalize the school’s courtyard and grounds through a variety of tasks including mulching, weeding, gardening, planting and other landscape work. Volunteers also brought new books, selected from the 2018 Nutmeg Book Awards, to help mitigate the “summer slide,” which often occurs when students are away from a classroom learning environment. Midway through, the volunteers and students stopped to share lunch, paint bird houses, and chat about Summer plans.

“As part of AXA IM’s Global Corporate Responsibility Week, our Greenwich-based staff was excited to get out of the office and into the community to support local students by championing a series of landscape work in Stark’s courtyard. The transformation was eye-opening, and our employees were excited to be able to come together to create an outdoor space that is engaging for both students and faculty,” said Sangita Blomberg, Head of USCommunications and Marketing, AXA Investment Managers.

“This was our third project in partnership with AXA IM’s volunteers. Each have been designed to support the Stamford Public Schools with critical outdoor restoration projects the selected schools would not have been able to pursue without the support of local businesses like AXA IM. Being able to bring together employees, students, faculty, and SPEF results in implementing large-scale projects in just one day, and has proven to provide a significant amount of return in just a single day of ‘work,’” said Lynn Tusa, Director of Development and Communication, SPEF.

About SPEF: Founded in 1996, the mission of the Stamford Public Education Foundation (SPEF) is to deliver educational programs and resources that elevate student, educator, and parent success by bridging the gap between needs in the Stamford Public Schools and resources in our community. The Foundation strives to enable each and every student in the Stamford Public Schools to graduate high school and enter college, career training, or fulltime employment ready to succeed. For further information, visit www.spefct.org.

Photo courtesy of Stamford Public Education Foundation