PPG Completes COLORFUL COMMUNITIES Project at Primary School in Deurne, Belgium

PPG has announced the completion of a COLORFUL COMMUNITIES project in Deurne, Belgium, that brightened a new playground at the local primary school, De Bever (The Beaver). The Colorful Communities program provides PPG volunteers and products along with financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where the company operates around the world, such as in Deurne, where PPG has a protective and marine coatings plant.

More than 30 PPG employees joined school staff and parents to volunteer for four days adding color to exterior walls and doors as well as brand-new playground equipment at the local school, which is operated by the city of Antwerp. PPG provided more than $10,000 for the project, including a new basketball hoop as well as SIGMA NEOFER Décor, SIGMA AMAROL Triol and SIGMAFACADE Topcoat Satin paint products.

The school, which serves 342 students in kindergarten through grade 6 and is located next to PPG’s facility in Deurne, recently rebuilt its playground with support from the city of Antwerp. Several PPG employees’ children attend the school, some of whom helped with the playground renovation project. Because they believed the neutral-colored playground equipment and environment would benefit from adding some bright-colored PPG paint products, PPG employees submitted the idea for consideration as a Colorful Communities project.

“I think it is our duty and responsibility as a PPG production facility to understand and support the community around the plant,” said Cees Rijnsburger, PPG operations manager, protective and marine coatings, Europe, Middle East and Africa. “It is very important to know what’s going on in the community around us, and this project gave us the chance to know our neighbors better. It was good to see everyone working together on the same project with the same goal.”

The Colorful Communities program is PPG’s signature initiative for community engagement efforts, with the aim to protect and enhance neighborhoods where PPG operates around the world. The program increases PPG’s commitment to invest in communities and supports projects that transform community spaces, providing PPG volunteers and donated PPG products. In 2015 and 2016 combined, PPG completed nearly 60 Colorful Communities projects, and it expects to complete about 75 more this year.