All of us at Duralum believe that supporting our staff and community are important parts of being the personal company we strive to be. Through various funding efforts throughout the year, Duralum and its staff “give back” to their communities and help where they can. These are a few of the efforts we are most proud to support.
These were pictures taken in one of the classrooms at Oakridge Elementary School in the Sacramento California. Duralum has donated money every year since 2008 so they she could build a library in a classroom. They now have over 1,200 books, most were bought with money donated by Duralum.
Oakridge Elementary was one of the bottom 1 % worst schools in the nation (based on test scores). Oakridge has scored the highest test score improvements for the last three years in the Sacramento Unified School district. One of the teachers, Nicole Quinn, coordinated this project. She has been an educator there for over 12 years.
What made this so special is that most of the kids you see in the photos would not have had the resources to go on this trip had it not been for the generosity of the staff and management at Duralum. Resources from school to school don’t always get spent in the same ways. In a school like this, the majority of the budget goes to providing basic needs to the students. This includes free breakfast and lunch, school supplies and additional resource teachers and administrators who deal with the baggage these children come with. Needless to say, there is not money for field trips. There are three full 6th grade classes at Oakridge, about 90 students. For those whose parents did not have the resources to pay for their child to attend, Duralum’s donation made up the shortfall. Every student who wished to attend did attend. In addition, the Corona branch donated 90 sleeping bags which is a luxury most students cannot afford. These sleeping bags were used, and then washed and stored for future years. These sleeping bags will provide years of use for future students of Oakridge.
THEY NOW HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE THE GREAT OUTDOORS. A WEEK THEY WILL NEVER FORGET.
USC Formula SAE Racing
Duralum sponsors engineering students in real-world racing!
Recognizing the importance of engineering to the company and in the Home Improvement industry, Duralum has been proud to sponsor tomorrow’s engineers through funding real life applications since 2013. Eighty student led Formula SAE teams from universities around the world traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska this June, vying for top finishes in static and dynamic events. The competition evaluates design, performance, and business acumen. In addition to competing against one another in acceleration, skid pad, autocross, and endurance events, each team also won points for its design theory and analysis, and its ability to market the yearlong project as a business venture and detail how well money was spent. This year’s competition brought a new level of passion from each team—especially from the University of Southern California Trojans. USC performed better than it has in over five years, placing 7th in the business presentation and 22nd in the cost event. While a differential fluid anomaly disqualified the team from the final (and point-heavy) endurance event, USC performed well otherwise and proudly finished in 40th place overall—a personal best in recent years. Read more about the competition at students.sae.org and visit the team at uscformulasae.com.
