MRA Volunteers - Mahan Rykiel Associates

MOTIVATED BY POSITIVE IMPACT

Walking the floor at Mahan Rykiel, you’ll see dedicated designers working out solutions to achieve maximized positive impacts for both the communities our projects serve and our clients. It seems that more than anything, this positive impact is the chief motivator for our employees, and it shows in the lives they live away from the office. We went around and gathered a snapshot of some of ways our employees are spending their time outside of the office to make a difference in their communities:

(L-R SCOTT RYKIEL, FASLA & JINGPENG GU, PLA)

Scott and Jingpeng have been donating their time by meeting with a local community to create a concept plan for a Baltimore neighborhood open space in Howard Park near Pimlico.

MATT RENAULD, PLA

Matt was appointed as a design professional on the Baltimore County Design Review Panel. His term on this volunteer board is three years.

(L-R) TOM MCGILLOWAY, PLA and JEFF DUBE, PLA

Tom McGilloway serves on the Board of Friends of Wyman Park Dell where he helps apply for grant funding and leads monthly park clean ups and tree plantings. He and Jeff Dube recently coordinated and participated in the planting of 30 trees in Wyman Park and assisted a local elementary school teacher in the development of a pollinator garden. During the Pandemic Tom McGilloway volunteered on a weekly basis for 6 months with the Franciscan Center to distribute food to people in need throughout the City.

TERRY BURNS, ISA CERTIFIED ARBORIST

For the past couple of years, Terry Burns has been volunteering at Cylburn Arboretum doing some design work on various areas of the arboretum. They just finished installing the first stint of his volunteer work in 2019/2020 (Piedmont Woods) in which they added various piedmont species and stormwater management plantings to the entrance and entry drive as well as removing some of the declining trees.

Ken participates in an Adopt-A-Road cleanup

KEN SCHMIDT, PLA, ASLA

For six years, Ken Schmidt has participated in an Adopt-A-Road cleanup along Thornton Mill Road in Hunt Valley, MD. The event is sponsored by Hunt Valley Horsepower, an automotive enthusiasts’ organization. The cleanup is a way of giving back as car-buffs enjoy gathering every Saturday morning for a Cars & Coffee–like event at Hunt Valley Mall. The roadway clean-up benefits the local community’s appearance and enhances and improves the stream buffer and ecosystem of Western Run. He was out again on July 18th helping to clean up litter.

CYNTHIA FRASER, MARKETING DIRECTOR

During the pandemic, Cynthia Fraser organized 12 churches of different denominations to ring their church bells at 7 PM every day to honor healthcare workers and rang her church’s bell every Saturday night for many months. She also helped to promote food contributions to ACTC and helped organize a donation to SEWA International to help get oxygen concentrators to India to fight their Covid-19 surge. She also organized lunches for the healthcare workers on the Covid Unit at GBMC; she put together care packages and wrote letters to seniors at her church, who were isolated and alone in continuing care communities during the pandemic; and helped tutor a child in West Baltimore virtually.

RUDRAKSHA JHAVERI, PLA, MLA, CDT, CSI

Rudraksha Jhaveri taught herself how to edit video on a computer in order to help her church provide online church services during the pandemic. She continues to help live stream the services now, as part of a 3 person AV team, mixing the videos for live streaming. She also initiated a drive for people to provide necessities and food for people in need through her church. She also collected shoes for the homeless through the Towson “Just for Kicks” campaign.

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