SU students to help Ronald McDonald House ‘Go Green’

Thursday, February 5, 2009, By News Staff

Daniel Klamm
(315) 443-3616

On Friday, Feb. 6, from noon-5 p.m., 40 students involved in General Electric and Syracuse University’s Leadership at Work program will engage in “Winter Clean-up to Go Green.”

Leadership at Work students will volunteer their time at the Ronald McDonald House in Syracuse, performing a full-scale housecleaning on the charity home away from home for families whose children are seriously ill and hospitalized.

The students will replace all light bulbs in the home with GE energy efficient light bulbs, thus reducing energy spending. This will allow the Ronald McDonald House to put more resources toward shelter and amenities for families, and less toward energy costs.

Ronald McDonald House Charities, with homes located across New York and northern Pennsylvania, have hosted more than 17,000 families whose children were seriously ill or injured since their 1974 beginnings. The homes are open 24 hours a day, year round.

The Leadership at Work program is a partnership between General Electric and Syracuse University that identifies student leaders early in their college careers and primes them for professional success. Students in the Leadership at Work program engage in a variety of skill-building workshops taught by General Electric leaders, including presentational speaking, team-building and project management.

As part of the program, students are exposed to General Electric’s culture of volunteerism. The “Winter Clean-up to Go Green” initiative at the Ronald McDonald House is one local example of a much larger organizational effort. Each year, General Electric employees volunteer more than 1 million hours of community service, enriching the communities in which they live and work.

GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.ge.com. For information about the Leadership at Work program, visit http://www.gecareers.com/syr.