MAPEI recently partnered with the charity organization AEC Cares for ProjectVegas, donating time and materials in order to improve conditions at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission (LVRM) in Las Vegas, Nev. The Rescue Mission comprises a campus that takes up two city blocks in downtown Las Vegas and provides beds, clothing, and recovery programs, as well as an estimated 30,000 meals to hundreds of men, women, and children per month.

LVRM depends on the donations of volunteers to provide services and to ensure that the building itself is adequate. Consequently, AEC Cares adopted LVRM as the program’s 2019 Blitz Build day-long building project. On June 5, the day before AIA’19 Conference on Architecture opened, the MAPEI team joined with more than 100 volunteers from throughout the industry to paint, repair, and clean LVRM’s chapel and gym using donated products. 

“When people come into the mission with the sole purpose of wanting to help, with no agenda other than lifting up the souls of others, it is a gift that is not definable by words,” said Heather Engle, LVRM’s CEO. “A clean and dignified space changes people; they stand up a little straighter and their pride is brighter. The ripple effects created by the time and generosity of MAPEI will go on for a very long time.”

MAPEI has been a participating sponsor in every AEC Cares project since the first one in 2007. Mike Granatowski, MAPEI’s director of Architectural and Commercial Projects, has reportedly been instrumental in organizing the company’s involvement with these events. He described this year’s project as “another huge success. Working together over the course of one day, architects, engineers, contractors and manufacturers’ representatives renovated the Rescue Mission’s chapel and gym. As always, it was a great day of hard work for a very worthwhile cause.”

For more information, visit www.mapei.com and www.aeccares.com.