#KeeleyCares: 2021 In Review
#KeeleyCares has had quite a year of serving the community with our time, talent, and treasure. Giving back is at the heart of everything we do, and we are grateful to be able to serve our communities around the country. Together we truly make a difference.
This year, we were honored to participate in three Clean Sweeps! Run by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Clean Sweep is a groundbreaking initiative that serves St. Louis’ most challenged neighborhoods. During our first Clean Sweep of the year, over 250 corporate and community volunteers joined us at the Urban League HQ’s neighborhood. Our partners and volunteers spent the day clearing and cleaning eight blocks of lots and alleyways, creating a better environment for residents. Twelve homes that were beyond repair were demolished, keeping the neighborhood safe for all. Our second Clean Sweep saw over 200 volunteers spend their Saturday in the Walnut Park neighborhood. Four blocks of the neighborhood were cleaned and cleared along with the demolition of six structures. Our last Clean Sweep of the year took place in the College Hill neighborhood with over 200 volunteers. Six large, dilapidated homes were demolished while four blocks of the neighborhood were cleaned. Clean Sweep truly is one of our favorite initiatives and we are so proud to support them year after year. Click here to learn more!
Every year, we are proud to support the life-changing efforts of Pedal the Cause as they work to fund groundbreaking cancer research. This year, on September 25 and 26, #KeeleyCares sponsored the PTC volunteer tent and Keeley'ns came out to volunteer and ride throughout the weekend. Nicole Kreeger, Vice President of Marketing at Keeley Companies and her husband Aric, Vice President of Engineering and Project Management at ADB Companies, have been volunteering with Pedal the Cause for seven consecutive years and serve as Volunteer Leads. Every Pedal the Cause weekend, they manage hundreds of volunteers and Keeley’ns that help the event run smoothly. Nicole is also a member of the Friends of Pedal Board, a young professional organization dedicated to advancing Pedal the Cause’s fight to cure cancer. We are so grateful for our partnership with Pedal the Cause and can't wait to continue to support them year after year as we work to create a world without cancer!
This year, our very own Rob Lochner, VP of Development at Keeley Properties, brought a new charity to our attention: Flags of Valor. Flags of Valor is part of America’s Heartland Remembers, founded in 2011 to honor and remember the heroes and victims of 9/11 on every five-year anniversary. When the plans were released for the 20th anniversary this year, Rob knew he wanted to get a Keeley team together. 2021 was our first year working with Flags of Valor and our team of volunteers was incredibly moved throughout the entire process. Team members from across Keeley Companies and ADB came together to assist the Flags of Valor team in getting the display ready for the public. Our team spent time assembling 300 flags that would have an informational dog tag and photo of the hero, installing those flags on Art Hill, and then removing them at the end of the exhibition and packaging them up so they could be distributed to the family of the hero represented on that flag. In total, there were 7,000+ flags on Art Hill honoring each service member who has died in the War on Terror since 9/11, 413 flags honoring the first responders who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and six oversized visual informational boards representing the 2,564 victims of the 9/11 attacks. This was an emotional, eye-opening event that even personally touched the lives of some of our team members. Click here to learn more!
In 2021, #KeeleyCares became a 501(c)(3) non-profit philanthropic foundation! We are now able to fund charities with grants in order to support the amazing work they do. We are so proud of our foundation and Keeley’ns for wholeheartedly giving back to our community. We can’t wait for what 2022 has in store for us!