Community Service
For many of us, our earliest life lessons and dreams can be traced to those learned on the playground. The playground – a place where friendships are made, teams chosen, abilities tested, disputes settled, and dreams run freely. Who can forget the exhilaration of being among the first to run to the swing set and claim a prized seat? Feeling the wind at your cheeks as you swung higher and higher, it was easy to believe you could touch the sky – anything felt possible.
In commemoration of its 150th Anniversary, Winston & Strawn is building a new playground in a disadvantaged neighborhood in each city in which the law firm has an office. Thomas Poindexter, a partner at Winston & Strawn and chair of its diversity committee, invited the MCCA staff to help build a playground for disadvantaged children at the Kenilworth Courts Public Housing Development in the District of Columbia.
Taking place on what had been the first sunny Friday in D.C. following endless weeks of rain, the day-long construction project was the first of its kind. Completed in partnership with KaBOOM! and the District of Columbia Housing Authority, the project enlisted more than volunteers, the majority of whom were Winston & Strawn lawyers and staff who took a day off from billing to focus on building.
Although laborious, requiring lots of lifting, hauling, and raking, the project proved phenomenally rewarding. Eight hours after we began, we all felt such a genuine sense of accomplishment by the time of the dedication ceremony. These photos give only a small sense of the magnitude of what Winston & Strawn is contributing for the benefit of countless children all over the country.
MCCA salutes Winston & Strawn and all of its employees on the year-long celebration of the firm's 150th year of service to its clients and communities. In a world where many businesses fail to master the art of keeping their constituents well served, it is nice to partner with one who has mastered that art one hundred and fifty times over.
Veta T. Richardson
From the July/August 2003 issue of Diversity & The Bar®