McAdams is Making it Happen
Last October, the civil engineering firm McAdams treated guests at the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter and Lucille Giles Center to a cookout. The Charlotte McAdams office focuses their philanthropic efforts on housing and hunger through the McAdams SHARES initiative. They’ve been partnering with Roof Above since 2018. The team supports Roof Above through financial contributions, by serving meals at the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter twice a month, and through their annual cookouts, which McAdams and Roof Above guests and staff alike highly anticipate.
Reflecting on the Partnership
McAdams team members Ken Frost, Esmira Poladova, and Diana Doan gathered to reflect on the past two events. In 2023, the team made a fish fry happen. Ken caught 60 pounds of fish himself in the weeks leading up to the big fish fry, and the whole team joined in to deep fry and serve the fish. “The idea behind the fish fry and the cookout,” Ken says, “is that it’s community, and it’s something where everyone can get involved . . . Everybody can think back to a cookout with family. We want to bring that community and neighborhood feel to these events.”
Diana shares that it’s “heartwarming to see everyone come out together, having fun and really giving back to the community.”
In 2024, the team took on an equally large project — planning a cookout for both of Roof Above’s Statesville Avenue shelters. Esmira spoke about planning this year’s event. “We’re an engineering firm, so we’re calculating surface area of the grill sizes through Excel.” McAdams served hot dogs and hamburgers to over 300 people.
For the McAdams crew, of course, is spending time with Roof Above guests is more important than logistics. So is ensuring that guests “know people care about them, that they aren’t forgotten. We want to do everything we can [to end homelessness] and we’re just a small percentage of the total effort,” says Ken.
Over the years of partnership, the McAdams team has formed relationships with Roof Above staff too. Esmira finds encouragement in “just how much dedication there is from the staff. That was really inspiring to me, that people really do care. And I want to care too.”
The McAdams team is already planning something “bigger and better” for this fall.