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Granite Turns a Day of Family Fun into $550,000 for Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteGranite Telecommunications, LLC, a provider of communications solutions to businesses, celebrated its 12th annual Granite Day on Saturday, June 6, hosting a community event in support of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Thousands of community members visited Granite's headquarters in Quincy to enjoy the fair, which included food from local restaurants, rides, games, music, arts and crafts, and other entertainment. The fair helped raise more than $550,000 for Dana-Farber, bringing Granite's annual total to nearly $4 million and more than $8 million in the past decade raised exclusively for Dana-Farber. "Granite Day is a great way to celebrate and give back to our local community," said Rob Hale, CEO and founder of Granite. "I would like to applaud our employees and partners for the effort they put into making Granite Day such a success as we support the programs and research at Dana-Farber." Granite has been a long-time supporter of Dana-Farber in its mission to provide care for cancer patients and ongoing research for a cure to the disease. In April, Granite and the Hale family raised $3.25 million for Dana-Farber when more than 550 employees, joined by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (News - Alert) and Quincy Mayor Tom Koch, shaved their heads at Granite's "Saving by Shaving" event. With the help of friends in the local business community, the food, games and rides at Granite Day are shared with the public. Granite employees coordinate year round to solicit donations of food and supplies from local businesses, including Stop & Shop, Maggiano's, Fratelli's, Panra Bread, Lessing's, Cathay Pacific Restaurant, La Paloma, Applebee's, The Ninety Nine, Unos, Balducci's, P.F. Chang's, and Buffalo Wild Wings. Dunkin Donuts and Chipotle sent volunteers to join Granite's 180 employees who volunteered more than 3,200 hours to help organize and coordinate the event. Additionally, O2X, a locally-owned fitness and human performance company, and OneSummit, a non-profit mentorship program committed to providing children fighting cancer with the courage, self-confidence and resilience needed to beat cancer, operated a rock climbing challenge at Granite Day. OneSummit's Climb for Courage program teams up children from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Mass General Hospital Cancer with a Navy SEAL mentor for an exciting day of indoor rock climbing and relationship building. Year after year, Granite has been honored as one of the most philanthropic companies in Massachusetts. In addition to the donations to Dana-Farber over the past several years, Granite has given more than $33 million to hundreds of different community organizations. Last summer, Dana-Farber and the Boston Red Sox presented the Boston Red Sox Jimmy Fund Award to Granite and the Hale family in recognition of Granite's long-time commitment to the life-saving mission of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "Granite's commitment to furthering patient care and cancer research at Dana-Farber is humbling and we are deeply grateful for their generosity," said Brenda Goodell, associate vice president, event fundraising, Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund. "We are honored by the dedication Rob and Judy Hale and everyone at Granite continues to give to our mission through their inspirational and hugely successful events like this weekend's 12th annual Granite Day." About Granite Granite provides voice, data and other related communications products and services to multi-location businesses and governmental agencies throughout the United States and Canada. Granite furnishes services to more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies in the United States, and 1.35 million phone lines under management. Granite employs over 1,300 people at the company's headquarters in Quincy, MA and offices in Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, New York, NY and Providence, RI. For more information, visit www.granitenet.com. About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is world-renowned for its leadership in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), it is one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of NCI and National Institutes of Health grant funding. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150608005912/en/ |
