BREWER, Maine — One recent morning while doing their stretches, several Cianbro electricians began discussing how they could give back to the community.
The small group of co-workers decided to adopt a needy family.
Once word got around, the group of electricians expanded to include engineers and grew to nearly 40 employees, said Peter Foster, head of engineering for Cianbro’s Eastern Manufacturing Facility in South Brewer.
“They came to me and said, ‘We want to adopt somebody,’” Foster said recently.
After contacting the city and the school department, a family with seven children was identified. Foster got a list of items the family needs and gave it to Jeremy Saulis, an engineering supervisor, who circulated it last Friday.
“It’s everything from clothes and some toys for the kids for Christmas to some odd jobs to be done around the house,” Foster said. “They need locks on the outside door, to fix a garage window. There are a variety of things. Nothing exotic.”
Even though the Cianbro employees don’t know the family or their circumstances, they have taken it upon themselves to make sure the Brewer family of nine has a good holiday.
One of the children is a teenager, but the others are all under age 10.
Items featuring “Winnie the Pooh, anything Elmo, Thomas [the train], Tinkerbell, Batman” are on the list of hoped-for items, said Foster.
The Cianbro employees feel fortunate and just want to give back to a family that needs a helping hand, he said, adding that “some volunteers are going to go to the house and help out” with the items that need fixing.
Tanya Pereira, Brewer economic development specialist, said the effort demonstrates the type of employees that Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp. has hired to work at its Brewer modular manufacturing facility.
“It’s not really Cianbro,” she said. “It just a couple of guys” from Cianbro.