Cummings Properties Employees Choose Local Charities For Donations

The start of the holiday season is especially festive for Cummings Properties’ employees, who are each invited annually to select a local charity to receive $1,000 through the company’s Employee Directed Giving program. Eighteen Woburn nonprofits received a total of $26,000 this year.

With the completion of the 2015 cycle, the three-year-old annual program has resulted in $1,068,000 in donations to organizations that are making a difference in the communities where Cummings Properties’ employees live and work.

Cummings Properties accounting admin and lifelong Woburn resident Kelly Dineen and her colleagues, Woburn residents Keith Lundin and Erving Rodriguez, selected Tanner Ta Ta Foundation to receive their 2015 Employee Directed Giving donations. The group provides support to Woburn-area women and men who have received a breast cancer diagnosis.

“As a cancer survivor who has benefitted from the critical support of the Tanner Ta Ta Foundation, it feels wonderful to give back to this local organization that was there for me and my family when we needed it,” said Dineen.

Woburn residents and Cummings’ employees Jo-Anne and Charlie Varoutsos selected the Best Buddies program at Joyce Middle School to receive their donations. It was especially meaningful to them because their son, Drew, is a teacher there.

Each eligible organization can receive as much as $5,000 per program cycle, if multiple staff members choose the same nonprofit. In addition to Joyce Middle School, NuPath, St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Charles Church, Woburn Host Lions, Woburn Council of Social Concern, and Woburn Little League each received $2,000.

“Our colleagues feel good about being able to support local charities that mean something to them and their families,” said Dennis Clarke, Cummings Properties’ president and CEO. “And we feel good about honoring staff members in this unique way for their hard work and dedication.”

The other Woburn recipients are: Blues for Veterans Association, Friends of Woburn Veterans, May Center School, Reeves Elementary School PTO, Supportive Living, Woburn Breakfast Lions Club, Woburn Fire Department, Woburn Guild of Artists, Woburn Public Library, Woburn Recreation Department, and Wyman Elementary School PTO.

Employee Directed Giving is open to all full-time employees of the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm as well as its affiliated retirement communities, New Horizons at Choate in Woburn and New Horizons at Marlborough. Selected nonprofits must meet a few eligibility requirements and must be based in and serve Middlesex, Essex, or Suffolk County, or the city or town in which the employee lives.

Staff members and their families often take photographs while making their check deliveries. This year, they have been invited to share them on social media, using #CummingsEDG.

Cummings Properties has a presence in 10 Greater Boston communities, including Woburn, which is home to its headquarters and several of its properties, including Cummings Park on Washington Street and the landmark TradeCenter 128 business campus.

More information, including the 2015 Employee Directed Giving list, is available here.

PHOTO: Left to right: Joyce Middle School Principal Tom Qualey and teacher Joanne Young, advisor for the Best Buddies program, accept $2,000 in Employee Directed Giving donations from Cummings Properties accounting admin Jo-Anne Varoutsos, pictured with her son, social studies teacher Drew Varoutsos.

PHOTO 2: Tanner Ta Ta Foundation co-founder and president Erin Ficociello accepts $3,000 in Employee Directed Giving donations from Cummings Properties accounting admin and breast cancer survivor, Kelly Dineen.