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Build Fore Good nets more than $300k for nonprofits since inception

In its fifth year, the Build Fore Good golf tournament has grown into a fun and unpretentious day for professionals in the building industry, with the side benefit of raising a remarkable amount of money for local nonprofits. This year’s beneficiary is the Foundation for Blind Children, which received a $60,000 contribution from the tournament proceeds, bringing the total dollars raised for local charitable organizations to more than $300,000 since the tournament’s inception.

Held at the beautiful Kierland golf course during November’s prime golfing season, the 2017 tournament hosted 216 golfers on three courses and was produced by 30 volunteers from Kitchell and hardison/downey construction, inc. Foursomes were treated to competitive challenges and diversions peppered throughout the golf course, including massage stations, corn hole, hole-in-one, longest drive and speed hole competitions. The tournament’s title sponsor was Mark-Taylor. Other sponsors were Lockton and American Openings.

“It’s important for us to support organizations to which our employee-owners are connected,” said Kitchell CEO Jim Swanson. “With many of our team members working on the Foundation’s physical expansion and seeing firsthand how expansive their reach is, selecting them as this year’s beneficiary just made sense.”

The Foundation for Blind Children (www.seeitourway.org) serves the blind and visually impaired of all ages, striving to serve as the community resource for blind, visually impaired and multi-handicapped children, adults and their families. The organization has locations in the East Valley, West Valley and Central Phoenix.

The Foundation is one of many nonprofit recipients of Kitchell’s generosity, which has exceeded $500,000 over the past year benefiting communities where Kitchell has offices and operations throughout the country. Support throughout the year has encompassed K-12 schools, Teach for America, Ryan House, Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation and Desert Mission Food Bank, among others. This year, Kitchell employees, through the Foundation, also contributed more than $34,000 to hurricane relief efforts in Texas and Florida.

Topping off a new University of Arizona landmark

The commemorative last steel beam was put into place recently at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Innovation Building project in Tucson, a world-class center designed to be the vanguard for inter-professional health professions education in the United States.

“We have experienced a tremendous evolution in the types of facilities we are building to accommodate today’s complex healthcare climate,” said Kitchell Contractors President Steve Whitworth. “Working on this facility extends our experience on hospitals and community health clinics to higher education, and we couldn’t be more pleased about contributing to the changing landscape on the University of Arizona campus.” Kitchell is the project’s general contractor.

The $165 million facility broke ground last year. Designed by Los Angeles-based CO Architects with Tucson-based Swaim Architects, the 10-story, 220,000-square-foot building is located on the west side of the Arizona Health Sciences Campus, north of the Bio5 building off East Helen Street and North Cherry Avenue. The project is envisioned to foster collaboration among multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty in all four colleges: medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Classrooms can accommodate as many as 150 people in a flexible “flipped classroom” format, which prioritizes group work over lectures. The building also includes a special events space that allows for more than 1,000 people.

“We’re re-imagining medical education, merging new technology, innovative curriculum and leading-edge design to provide our students with the most comprehensive training, knowledge and resources they need to be successful, team-oriented health professionals,” said Leigh A. Neumayer, MD, MS, UA interim senior vice president for health sciences.