Greeting Reuse Fans,
There are a lot of things that have come to be synonymous with this time of year. The typical turkey day feasts, a gathering of family and friends, and more recently, the onset of the holiday shopping spree. Early morning doorbuster sales have spread through the avenue of web commerce to fanatical levels of obsession with exclusive deals and limited time only savings designed to kick off a season of purchases made to further our sense of community through economy. But the rise of Black Friday hasn’t been all bad. Small Business Saturday sought to move the spotlight towards the small, local and often more civic-minded vendors, artisans and storeowners who have a firm foot planted in the communities they share with their patrons. The constant barrage of outright capitalism has been tempered by a pushback from the charitable sector. It’s becoming increasingly common to find everything from groceries to utilities to bar tabs associated with the opportunity to benefit others.
GiveBig Pittsburgh has united around another fairly new tradition of the season, that of Giving Tuesday. While in the past, Pittsburgh’s own Day Of Giving has fallen in the spring, the move late November seems like a natural fit. While we are bombarded on every screen with different reasons to spend, the greater spirit of Thanksgiving has been relegated to almost a footnote. But this year, giving thanks is back at the front of our minds.
Marvin, a CJ Goodwill Trainee
Here at Construction Junction, we especially wanted to highlight our increasing work with Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania, with whom we have built a job training program that has helped to advance the missions of both of our organizations significantly over the past 5 years. Through programs to assist our deconstruction team and retail operation, to a permanent processing department that currently prepares a variety of materials donated to Construction Junction for sale, our partnership has become an essential part of our operation. Rooted not only in CJ’s necessity to handle large volumes of materials that require extra processing, like doors and door hardware, tile and flooring, but from a desire to grow our involvement in the area of job training offered to individuals with barriers to employment, we hope to continue to expand and improve this operation.
That’s where you come in! While the calls for material donations are a natural part of our core mission, the financial needs required to support that mission are tougher to come by. In the past, we may have been lacking a clear call to action for our supporters to feel engaged in. For this year’s GiveBig Pittsburgh, we’re working to change that.
There are some specific areas of need that you can help in order for CJ to continue to develop and expand our Goodwill job training program. From outfitting each client who works in the program with the basics like hand tools, tape measures, and tool belts, the construction of new conveyance racks that can increase the efficiency of the department, to a computer to be used to further the soft skill training offered by Goodwill, please visit our GiveBig page to see how your monetary donation can be utilized. We thank you in advance for taking the time to give back.
We consider ourselves especially lucky to be a part of a wide-reaching and varied nonprofit community. From our environmental financial collaborative partners Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, Tree Pittsburgh, Bike Pittsburgh, and GTech Strategies, our North Lexington Street tenants Pittsburgh Center For Creative Reuse, Computer Reach, Free Ride, and the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, to the various partnerships we have worked to build over 18 years of reuse with organizations like Off The Floor Pittsburgh, Global Links, East End Cooperative Ministry, Sustainable Pittsburgh, Green Building Alliance, and many others, we urge you to take the opportunity this holiday season to support the organization of your choice.
